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EI>ERICKL  H.  I^ARjrENS 


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VIOLIN  MASTERY 


ErtiKNK    YSAYE 


; 


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VIOLIN    MASTERY 


TALKS  WITH  MASTER  VIOLINISTS 
AND  TEACHERS 


COMPRISING   INTERVIEWS   WITH    YSAYE,     KREISLER, 

EUIAN,    AUER,   THIBAUD,    HEIPETZ,    HARTMANN, 

MAUD  POWELL  AND  OTHERS 


BY 

FREDERICK  H.  MARTENS 


WITH   SIXTEEN  POBTBAIIB 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


/^. 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company 


All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of  translation 
into  foreign  languages 


FOREWORD 

The  appreciation  accorded  Miss  Harriette 
Brower's  admirable  books  on  Piano  Mastery 
has  prompted  the  present  volume  of  intimate 
Talks  with  Master  Violinists  and  Teachers^ 
in  which  a  number  of  famous  artists  and  in- 
structors discuss  esthetic  and  technical  phases 
of  the  art  of  violin  playing  in  detail,  their  con- 
cept of  M'hat  Violin  Mastery  means,  and  how 
it  may  be  acquired.  Only  limitation  of  space 
has  prevented  the  inclusion  of  numerous  other 
deserving  artists  and  teachers,  yet  practically 
all  of  the  greatest  masters  of  the  violin  now  in 
this  country  are  represented.  That  the  les- 
sons of  their  artistry  and  experience  will  be 
of  direct  benefit  and  value  to  every  violin  stu- 
dent and  every  lover  of  violin  music  may  be 
accepted  as  a  foregone  conclusion. 

Frederick  H.  Martens. 

171  Orient  Way, 
Rutherford   N.  J. 


Foreword    .     .     . 

EucilNE  YSATE  . 

Leopold  Aubr  . 
Eddy  Brown     .     . 

MiscHA  Elhan  .     . 

Sahtjel  Gardner  . 
Arthur  Hartmann 
Jascha  Heifetz 


David  Hochstein  . 

Fritz  Kreisler 
Franz  Kneisel 
Adolfo  Betti    . 
Hans  Letz    . 
David  Mannes 
TivADAR  Nach£z 
Maximilian  Pilzbr 
Maud  Powell  . 


Leon  Sametini  . 
Alexander  Saslavskt 

ToscHA  Seidel  . 


CONTENTS 

PAOE 
V 

.  The  Tools  of  Violin  Mastery  .  .  1 
.  A  Method  without  Secrets  ...  14 
.   Hubay  and  Auer:    Technic:   Hints 

to  the  Student 25 

.  Life  and  Color  in  Interpretation. 

Technical  Phases 38 

.  Technic  and  Musicianship  ...  54 
.  The  Problem  of  Technic  ...  66 
.   The    Danger    of    Practicing    Too 

Much.     Technical  Mastery  and 

Temperament 78 

.  The  Violin  as  a  Means  of  Expression 

and  Expressive  Playing    .      .     .91 

,   Personality  in  Art 99 

.  The  Perfect  String  Ensemble  .  .110 
.  The  Technic  of  the  Modem  Quartet  127 
.  The  Technic  of  Bowing  .140 

.  The  Philosophy  of  Violin  Teaching  146 
.  Joachim  and  Leonard  as  Teachers  .  160 
.  The  Singing  Tone  and  the  Vibrato  .  177 
.  Technical  Difficulties:    Some  Hints 

for  the  Concert  Player     .      .      .   183 

.   Harmonics 198 

.  What  the  Teacher  Can  and  Cannot 

Do 210 

.  How  to  Study 219 

vji 


Vlll 


Contents 

PAGE 

.  The  Joachim  Bowing  and  Others: 

The  Left  Hand 227 

.  The  Most  Important  Factor  in  the 

Development  of  an  Artist  .  .  2i0 
.  The  Application  of  Bow  Exercises 

to  the  Study  of  Kreutzer       .      .   447 

.  The  Ideal  Program 259 

.  The  Editor  as  a  Factor  in  "Violin 

Mastery" 277 


Edmukd  Severn     . 

Albert  Spalding    . 

Theodore  Spiering 

Jacques  Thibaud   . 
GusTAV  Saenger    . 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Eugene  Ysaye Frontispiece 


FACINQ 
PAGE 


Leopold  Auer 14 

Mischa  Elman 38 

Arthur  Hartmann Q6 

Jascha    Heifetz 78 

Fritz  Kreisler 100 

Franz  Kneisel 110 

Adolfo  Betti 128 

David  Mannes 146 

Tivadar  Nach^z l60 

Maud  Powell 184 

Toscha  Seidel 220 

Albert  Spalding 240 

Theodore  Spiering 248 

Jacques   Thibaud 260 

Gustav   Saenger 278 


VIOLIN   MASTERY 


EUGENE    YSAYE 

THE  TOOLS  OF  VIOLIN  MASTERY 

Who  is  there  among  contemporary  masters 
of  the  viohn  whose  name  stands  for  more  at 
the  present  time  than  that  of  the  great  Bel- 
gian artist,  his  "extraordinary  temperamental 
power  as  an  interpreter"  enhanced  by  a  hun- 
dred and  one  special  gifts  of  tone  and  tech- 
nic,  gifts  often  alluded  to  by  his  admiring  col- 
leagues? For  Ysaye  is  the  greatest  exponent 
of  that  wonderful  Belgian  school  of  violin 
playing  which  is  rooted  in  his  teachers  Vieux- 
temps  and  Wieniawski,  and  which  as  Ysaye 
himself  says,  "during  a  period  covering  sev- 
enty years  reigned  supreme  at  the  Conserva- 
toire in  Paris  in  the  persons  of  Massart,  Remi, 
Marsick,  and  others  of  its  great  interpreters." 

What  most  impresses  one  who  meets  Ysaye 
1 


Violin  Mastery 


and  talks  with  him  for  the  first  time  is  the  men- 
tal breadth  and  vision  of  the  man ;  his  kindness 
and  amiability;  his  utter  lack  of  small  vanity. 
When  the  writer  first  called  on  him  in  New 
York  with  a  note  of  introduction  from  his 
friend  and  admirer  Adolfo  Betti,  and  later  at 
Scarsdale  where,  in  company  with  his  friend 
Thibaud,  he  was  dividing  his  time  between  mu- 
sic and  tennis,  Ysaye  made  him  entirely  at 
home,  and  willingly  talked  of  his  art  and  its 
ideals.  In  reply  to  some  questions  anent  his 
own  study  years,  he  said: 

"Strange  to  say,  my  father  was  my  very 
first  teacher — it  is  not  often  the  case.  I  stud- 
ied with  him  until  I  went  to  the  Liege  Con- 
servatory in  1867,  where  I  won  a  second  prize, 
sharing  it  with  Ovide  Musin,  for  playing  Vi- 
otti's  22d  Concerto.  Then  I  had  lessons  from 
Wieniawski  in  Brussels  and  studied  two  years 
with  Vieuxtemps  in  Paris.  Vieuxtemps  was 
a  paralytic  w^hen  I  came  to  him;  yet  a  won- 
derful teacher,  though  he  could  no  longer  play. 
And  I  was  already  a  concertizing  artist  when 
I  met  him.  He  was  a  very  great  man,  the 
grandeur  of  whose  tradition  lives  in  the  whole 
'romantic  school'  of  violin  playing.  Look  at 
his  seven  concertos — of  course  they  are  writ- 
ten with  an  eye  to  effect,  from  the  virtuoso's 


Eugene  Ysaye  3 

standpoint,  yet  how  firmly  and  solidly  they  are 
built  up!  How  interesting  is  their  working- 
out:  and  the  orchestral  score  is  far  more  than 
a  mere  accompaniment.  As  regards  virtuose 
effect  only  Paganini's  music  compares  with 
his,  and  Paganini,  of  course,  did  not  play  it  as 
it  is  now  played.  In  wealth  of  technical  de- 
velopment, in  true  musical  expressiveness 
Vieuxtemps  is  a  master.  A  proof  is  the  fact 
that  his  works  have  endured  forty  to  fifty 
years,  a  long  life  for  compositions. 

"Joachim,  Leonard,  Sivori,  Wieniawski — 
all  admired  Vieuxtemps.  In  Paganini's  and 
Locatelli's  works  the  effect,  comparatively 
speaking,  lies  in  the  mechanics;  but  Vieux- 
temps is  the  great  artist  who  made  the  instru- 
ment take  the  road  of  romanticism  which 
Hugo,  Balzac  and  Gauthier  trod  in  literature. 
And  before  all  the  violin  was  made  to  charm, 
to  move,  and  Vieuxtemps  knew  it.  Like 
Rubinstein,  he  held  that  the  artist  must  first 
of  all  have  ideas,  emotional  power — his  tech- 
nic  must  be  so  perfected  that  he  does  not  have 
to  think  of  it!  Incidentally,  speaking  of 
schools  of  violin  playing,  I  find  that  there  is  a 
great  tendency  to  confuse  the  Belgian  and 
French.  This  should  not  be.  They  are  dis- 
tinct, though  the  latter  has  undoubtedly  been 


4f  Violin  Mastery 

formed  and  influenced  by  the  former.  Many 
of  the  great  violin  names,  in  fact, — Vieux- 
temps,  Leonard,  Marsick,  Remi,  Parent,  de 
Bronx,  Musin,  Thomson, — are  all  Belgian." 

ysaye's  repertory 

Ysaye  spoke  of  Vieuxtemps's  repertory — 
only  he  did  not  call  it  that:  he  spoke  of  the 
Vieuxtemps  compositions  and  of  Vieuxtemps 
himself.  "Vieuxtemps  wrote  in  the  grand 
style ;  his  music  is  always  rich  and  sonorous.  If 
his  violin  is  really  to  sound,  the  violinist  must 
play  Vieuxtemps,  just  as  the  'cellist  plays  Ser- 
vais.  You  know,  in  the  Catholic  Church,  at 
Vespers,  whenever  God's  name  is  spoken,  we 
bow  the  head.  And  Wieniawski  would  always 
bow  his  head  when  he  said :  'Vieuxtemps  is  the 
master  of  us  all!' 

"I  have  often  played  his  Fifth  Concerto j  so 
warm,  brilliant  and  replete  with  temperament, 
always  full-sounding,  rich  in  an  almost  un- 
bounded strength.  Of  course,  since  Vieux- 
temps wrote  his  concertos,  a  great  variety  of 
fine  modern  works  has  appeared,  the  appre- 
ciation of  chamber-music  has  grown  and  de- 
veloped, and  with  it  that  of  the  sonata.  And 
the  modern  violin  sonata  is  also  a  vehicle  for 


Eugene  Ysaye 


violin  virtuosity  in  the  very  best  meaning  of 
the  word.  The  sonatas  of  Cesar  Franck, 
d'Indy,  Theodore  Dubois,  Lekeu,  Vierne,  Ro- 
partz,  Lazarri — they  are  all  highly  expressive, 
yet  at  the  same  time  virtuose.  The  violin 
parts  develop  a  lovely  song  line,  yet  their  tech- 
nic  is  far  from  simple.  Take  Lekeu's  splen- 
did Sonata  in  G  major;  rugged  and  massive, 
making  decided  technical  demands — it  yet  has 
a  wonderful  breadth  of  melody,  a  great  ex- 
pressive quality  of  song." 

These  works — those  who  have  heard  the 
Master  play  the  beautiful  Lazarri  sonata  this 
season  will  not  soon  forget  it — are  all  dedi- 
cated to  Ysaye.  And  this  holds  good,  too,  of 
the  Cesar  Franck  sonata.  As  Ysaye  says: 
"Performances  of  these  great  sonatas  call  for 
two  artists — for  their  piano  parts  are  some- 
times very  elaborate.  Cesar  Franck  sent  me 
his  sonata  on  September  26,  1886,  my  wedding 
day — it  was  his  wedding  present!  I  cannot 
complain  as  regards  the  number  of  works, 
really  important  works,  inscribed  to  me.  There 
are  so  many — by  Chausson  (his  symphony), 
Ropartz,  Dubois  (his  sonata — one  of  the  best 
after  Franck),  d'Indy  (the  Istar  variations 
and  other  works),  Gabriel  Faure  (the  Quin- 
tet),  Debussy    (the    Quartet)!      There   are 


Violin  Mastery 


more  than  I  can  recall  at  the  moment — violin 
sonatas,  symphonic  music,  chamber-music, 
choral  works,  compositions  of  every  kind! 

"Debussy,  as  you  know,  wrote  practically 
nothing  originally  for  the  violin  and  piano — 
with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  a  work  pub- 
lished by  Durand  during  his  last  illness.  Yet 
he  came  very  near  writing  something  for  me. 
Fifteen  years  ago  he  told  me  he  was  compos- 
ing a  'Nocturne'  for  me.  I  went  off  on  a  con- 
cert tour  and  was  away  a  long  time.  When  I 
returned  to  Paris  I  wrote  to  Debussy  to  find 
out  what  had  become  of  my  'Nocturne.*  And 
he  replied  that,  somehow,  it  had  shaped  itself 
up  for  orchestra  instead  of  a  violin  solo.  It 
is  one  of  the  Trois  Nocturnes  for  orchestra. 
Perhaps  one  reason  why  so  much  has  been  in- 
scribed to  me  is  the  fact  that  as  an  interpreting 
artist,  I  have  never  cultivated  a  'specialty.'  I 
have  played  everything  from  Bach  to  Debussy, 
for  real  art  should  be  international!" 

Ysaye  himself  has  an  almost  marvelous 
right-arm  and  fingerboard  control,  which  en- 
ables him  to  produce  at  will  the  finest  and  most 
subtle  tonal  nuances  in  all  bowings.  Then, 
too,  he  overcomes  the  most  intricate  mechan- 
ical problems  with  seemingly  effortless  ease. 
And  his  tone  has  well  been  called  "golden." 


Eugene  Ysaye 


His  own  definition  of  tone  is  worth  recording. 
He  says  it  should  be  "In  music  what  the  heart 
suggests,  and  the  soul  expresses!" 

THE  TOOLS  OF  VIOLIN  MASTERY 


"With  regard  to  mechanism,"  Ysaye  con- 
tinued, "at  the  present  day  the  tools  of  violin 
mastery,  of  expression,  technic,  mechanism,  are 
far  more  necessary  than  in  days  gone  by.  In 
fact  they  are  indispensable,  if  the  spirit  is  to 
express  itself  without  restraint.  And  the 
greater  mechanical  command  one  has  the  less 
noticeable  it  becomes.  All  that  suggests  ef- 
fort, awkwardness,  difficulty,  repels  the  lis- 
tener, who  more  than  anything  else  delights 
in  a  singing  violin  tone.  Vieuxtemps  often 
said:  Pas  de  trait  pour  le  trait — chantez,  chan- 
tez!  (Not  runs  for  the  sake  of  runs — sing, 
sing ! ) 

"Too  many  of  the  technicians  of  the  present 
day  no  longer  sing.  Their  difficulties — they 
surmount  them  mo^;e  or  less  happily;  but  the 
effect  is  too  apparent,  and  though,  at  times, 
the  listener  may  be  astonished,  he  can  never  be 
charmed.  Agile  fingers,  sure  of  themselves, 
and  a  perfect  bow  stroke  are  essentials;  and 
they  must  be  supremely  able  to  carry  along  the 


8  Violin  Mastery 

rhythm  and  poetic  action  the  artist  desires. 
Mechanism  becomes,  if  anything,  more  acces- 
sible in  proportion  as  its  domain  is  enriched 
by  new  formulas.  The  violinist  of  to-day 
commands  far  greater  technical  resources  than 
did  his  predecessors.  Paganini  is  accessible 
to  nearly  all  players:  Vieuxtemps  no  longer 
offers  the  difficulties  he  did  thirty  years  ago. 
Yet  the  wood-wind,  brass  and  even  the  string 
instruments  subsist  in  a  measure  on  the  herit- 
age transmitted  by  the  masters  of  the  past. 
I  often  feel  that  violin  teaching  to-day  endeav- 
ors to  develop  the  esthetic  sense  at  too  early  a 
stage.  And  in  devoting  itself  to  the  head  it 
forgets  the  hands,  with  the  result  that  the 
young  soldiers  of  the  violinistic  army,  full  of 
ardor  and  courage,  are  ill  equipped  for  the 
great  battle  of  art. 

"In  this  connection  there  exists  an  excellent 
set  of  Etudes-Capiices  by  E.  Chaumont, 
which  offer  the  advanced  student  new  elements 
and  formulas  of  development.  Though  in 
some  of  them  'the  frame  is  too  large  for  the 
picture,'  and  though  difficult  from  a  violinistic 
point  of  view,  'they  lie  admirably  well  up  the 
neck,'  to  use  one  of  Vieuxtemps's  expressions, 
and  I  take  pleasure  in  calling  attention  to 
them. 


Eugene  Ysaye 


"When  I  said  that  the  string  instruments, 
inckiding  the  vioHn,  subsist  in  a  measure  on 
the  heritage  transmitted  by  the  masters  of  the 
past,  I  spoke  with  special  regard  to  technic. 
Since  Vieuxtemps  there  has  been  hardly  one 
new  passage  written  for  the  violin;  and  this 
has  retarded  the  development  of  its  technic. 
In  the  case  of  the  piano,  men  like  Godowsky 
have  created  a  new  technic  for  their  instru- 
ment; but  although  Saint-Saens,  Bruch,  Lalo 
and  others  have  in  their  works  endowed  the 
violin  with  much  beautiful  music,  music  itself 
was  their  first  concern,  and  not  music  for  the 
violin.  There  are  no  more  concertos  written 
for  the  solo  flute,  trombone,  etc. — as  a  result 
there  is  no  new  technical  material  added  to  the 
resources  of  these  instruments. 

"In  a  way  the  same  holds  good  of  the  violin 
— new  works  conceived  only  from  the  musical 
point  of  view  bring  about  the  stagnation  of 
technical  discovery,  the  invention  of  new  pas- 
sages, of  novel  harmonic  wealth  of  combina- 
tion is  not  encouraged.  And  a  violinist  owes 
it  to  himself  to  exploit  the  great  possibilities 
of  his  own  instrument.  I  have  tried  to  find 
new  technical  ways  and  means  of  expression  in 
my  own  compositions.  For  example,  I  have 
written  a  Divertiment  for  violin  and  orchestra 


10  Violin  Mastery 

in  which  I  believe  I  have  embodied  new 
thoughts  and  ideas,  and  have  attempted  to  give 
viohn  technic  a  broader  scope  of  life  and  vigor. 

"In  the  days  of  Viotti  and  Rode  the  har- 
monic possibilities  were  more  limited — they 
had  only  a  few  chords,  and  hardly  any  chords 
of  the  ninth.  But  now  harmonic  material  for 
the  development  of  a  new  violin  technic  is 
there:  I  have  some  violin  studies,  in  ms.,  which 
I  may  publish  some  day,  devoted  to  that  end. 
I  am  always  somewhat  hesitant  about  publish- 
ing— there  are  many  things  I  might  publish, 
but  I  have  seen  so  much  brought  out  that  was 
banal,  poor,  unworthy,  that  I  have  always  been 
inclined  to  mistrust  the  value  of  my  own  cre- 
ations rather  than  fall  into  the  same  error.  We 
have  the  scale  of  Debussy  and  his  successors 
to  draw  upon,  their  new  chords  and  succes- 
sions of  fourths  and  fifths — for  new  technical 
formulas  are  always  evolved  out  of  and  fol- 
low after  new  harmonic  discoveries — though 
there  is  as  yet  no  violin  method  which  gives  a 
fingering  for  the  whole-tone  scale.  Perhaps 
we  will  have  to  wait  until  Kreisler  or  I  will 
have  written  one  which  makes  plain  the  new 
flowering  of  technical  beauty  and  esthetic  de- 
velopment which  it  brings  the  violin. 

"As  to  teaching  violin,  I  have  never  taught 


Eugene  Ysaye  11 

violin  in  the  generally  accepted  sense  of  the 
phrase.  But  at  Godinne,  where  I  usually 
spent  my  summers  when  in  Europe,  I  gave  a 
kind  of  traditional  course  in  the  works  of 
Vieuxtemps,  Wieniawski  and  other  masters  to 
some  forty  or  fifty  artist-students  who  would 
gather  there — the  same  course  I  look  forward 
to  giving  in  Cincinnati,  to  a  master  class  of 
very  advanced  pupils.  This  was  and  will  be  a 
labor  of  love,  for  the  compositions  of  Vieux- 
temps and  Wieniawski  especially  are  so  in- 
spiring and  yet,  as  a  rule,  they  are  so  badly 
played — without  grandeur  or  beauty,  with  no 
thought  of  the  traditional  interpretation — 
that  they  seem  the  piecework  of  technic  fac- 
tories ! 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"When  I  take  the  whole  history  of  the 
violin  into  account  I  feel  that  the  true  in- 
wardness of  'Violin  JNIastery'  is  best  expressed 
by  a  kind  of  threefold  group  of  great  artists. 
First,  in  the  order  of  romantic  expression,  we 
have  a  trinity  made  up  of  Corelli,  Viotti  and 
Vieuxtemps.  Then  there  is  a  trinity  of  me- 
chanical perfection,  composed  of  Locatelli, 
Tartini  and  Paganini  or,  a  more  modern 
equivalent,  Cesar  Thomson,  Kubelik  and  Bur- 


12  Violin  Mastery 

meister.  And,  finally,  what  I  might  call  in 
the  order  of  lyric  expression,  a  quartet  com- 
prising Ysaye,  Thibaud,  Mischa  Elman  and 
Sametini  of  Chicago,  the  last-named  a  wonder- 
fully fine  artist  of  the  lyric  or  singing  type. 
Of  course  there  are  qualifications  to  be  made. 
Locatelli  was  not  altogether  an  exponent  of 
technic.  And  many  other  fine  artists  besides 
those  mentioned  share  the  characteristics  of 
those  in  the  various  groups.  Yet,  speaking  in 
a  general  way,  I  believe  that  these  groups  of 
attainment  might  be  said  to  sum  up  what 
'Violin  Mastery'  really  is.  And  a  violin  mas- 
ter? He  must  be  a  violinist,  a  thinker,  a  poet, 
a  human  being,  he  must  have  known  hope,  love, 
passion  and  despair,  he  must  have  run  the 
gamut  of  the  emotions  in  order  to  express  them 
all  in  his  playing.  He  must  play  his  violin  as 
Pan  played  his  flute !" 

In  conclusion  Ysaye  sounded  a  note  of  warn- 
ing for  the  too  ambitious  young  student  and 
player.  "If  Art  is  to  progress,  the  technical 
and  mechanical  element  must  not,  of  course,  be 
neglected.  But  a  boy  of  eighteen  cannot  ex- 
pect to  express  that  to  which  the  serious  stu- 
dent of  thirty,  the  man  who  has  actually  lived, 
can  give  voice.  If  the  violinist's  art  is  truly  a 
great  art,  it  cannot  come  to  fruition  in  the  art- 


Eugene  Ysaye  V6 

ist's  'teens.  His  accomplishment  then  is  no 
more  than  a  promise — a  promise  which  finds 
its  reahzation  in  and  by  life  itself.  Yet  Amer- 
icans have  the  brains  as  well  as  the  spiritual 
endowment  necessary  to  understand  and  ap- 
preciate beauty  in  a  high  degree.  They  can 
already  point  with  pride  to  violinists  who  em- 
phatically deserve  to  be  called  artists,  and  an- 
other quarter-century  of  artistic  striving  may 
well  bring  them  into  the  front  rank  of  violin- 
istic  achievement!" 


II 
LEOPOLD  AUER 

A  METHOD  WITHOUT  SECRETS 

When  that  celebrated  laboratory  of  budding 
musical  genius,  the  Petrograd  Conservatory, 
closed  its  doors  indefinitely  owing  to  the  dis- 
turbed political  conditions  of  Russia,  the  fa- 
mous violinist  and  teacher  Professor  Leopold 
Auer  decided  to  pay  the  visit  to  the  United 
States  which  had  so  repeatedly  been  urged  on 
him  by  his  friends  and  pupils.  His  fame,  ow- 
ing to  such  heralds  as  Efrem  Zimbalist,  Mischa 
Elman,  Kathleen  Parlow,  Eddy  Brown,  Fran- 
cis MacMillan,  and  more  recently  Sascha 
Heifetz,  Toscha  Seidel,  and  Max  Rosen,  had 
long  since  preceded  him ;  and  the  reception  ac- 
corded him  in  this  country,  as  a  soloist  and  one 
of  the  greatest  exponents  and  teachers  of  his 
instrument,  has  been  one  justly  due  to  his  au- 
thority and  preeminence. 

It  was  not  easy  to  have  a  heart-to-heart  talk 
with  the  Master  anent  his  art,  since  every  min- 

14 


Leopold  Aueb 


Leopold  Auer  15 

ute  of  his  time  was  precious.  Yet  ushered  into 
his  presence,  the  writer  discovered  that  he  had 
laid  aside  for  the  moment  other  preoccupa- 
tions, and  was  amiabi^^  responsive  to  all  ques- 
tions, once  their  object  had  been  disclosed. 
Naturally,  the  first  and  burning  question  in 
the  case  of  so  celebrated  a  pedagogue  was: 
"How  do  you  form  such  wonderful  artists? 
What  is  the  secret  of  your  method?" 

A  METHOD  WITHOUT  SECRETS 

*'I  know,"  said  Professor  Auer,  "that  there 
is  a  theory  somewhat  to  the  effect  that  I  make 
a  few  magic  passes  with  the  bow  by  way  of  il- 
lustration and — presto — you  have  a  Zimbalist 
or  a  Heifetz!  But  the  truth  is  I  have  no 
method — unless  you  want  to  call  purely  nat- 
ural lines  of  development,  based  on  natural 
principles,  a  method — and  so,  of  course,  there 
is  no  secret  about  my  teaching.  The  one  great 
point  I  lay  stress  on  in  teaching  is  never  to 
kill  the  individuality  of  my  various  pupils. 
Each  pupil  has  his  own  inborn  aptitudes,  his 
own  personal  qualities  as  regards  tone  and  in- 
terpretation. I  always  have  made  an  individ- 
ual study  of  each  pupil,  and  given  each  pupil 
individual  treatment.     And  always,  always  I 


16  Violin  Mastery 

have  encouraged  them  to  develop  freely  in 
their  own  way  as  regards  inspiration  and 
ideals,  so  long  as  this  was  not  contrary  to  es- 
thetic principles  and  those  of  my  art.  My 
idea  has  always  been  to  help  bring  out  what 
nature  has  already  given,  rather  than  to  use 
dogma  to  force  a  student's  natural  inclinations 
into  channels  I  myself  might  prefer.  And 
another  great  principle  in  my  teaching,  one 
which  is  productive  of  results,  is  to  demand  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  pupil.  Then  he  will 
give  you  something! 

"Of  course  the  whole  subject  of  violin  teach- 
ing is  one  that  I  look  at  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  teacher  who  tries  to  make  what  is  already 
excellent  perfect  from  the  musical  and  artistic 
standpoint.  I  insist  on  a  perfected  technical 
development  in  every  pupil  who  comes  to  me. 
Art  begins  where  technic  ends.  There  can  be 
no  real  art  development  before  one's  technic  is 
firmly  established.  And  a  great  deal  of  tech- 
nical work  has  to  be  done  before  the  great 
works  of  violin  literature,  the  sonatas  and  con- 
certos, may  be  approached.  In  Petrograd  my 
own  assistants,  who  were  familiar  with  my 
ideas,  prepared  my  pupils  for  me.  And  in  my 
own  experience  I  have  found  that  one  cannot 
teach  by  word,  by  the   spoken  explanation. 


Leopold  Auer  17 

alone.  If  I  have  a  point  to  make  I  explain  it ; 
but  if  my  explanation  fails  to  explain  I  take 
my  violin  and  bow,  and  clear  up  the  matter  be- 
yond any  doubt.  The  word  lives,  it  is  true,  but 
often  the  word  must  be  materialized  by  action 
so  that  its  meaning  is  clear.  There  are  always 
things  which  the  pupil  must  be  shown  liter- 
ally, though  explanation  should  always  sup- 
plement illustration.  I  studied  with  Joachim 
as  a  boy  of  sixteen — it  was  before  1866,  when 
there  was  still  a  kingdom  of  Hanover  in  ex- 
istence— and  Joachim  alwaj^s  illustrated  his 
meaning  with  bow  and  fiddle.  But  he  never 
explained  the  technical  side  of  what  he  illus- 
trated. Those  more  advanced  understood 
without  verbal  comment;  yet  there  were  some 
who  did  not. 

*'As  regards  the  theory  that  you  can  tell  who 
a  violinist's  teacher  is  by  the  way  in  which  he 
plays,  I  do  not  believe  in  it.  I  do  not  believe 
that  you  can  tell  an  Auer  pupil  by  the  manner 
in  which  he  plays.  And  I  am  proud  of  it  since 
it  shows  that  my  pupils  have  profited  by  my 
encouragement  of  individual  development,  and 
that  they  become  genuine  artists,  each  with  a 
personality  of  his  own,  instead  of  violinistic 
automats,  all  bearing  a  marked  family  resem- 
blance." 


18  Violin  Mastery 

Questioned  as  to  how  his  various  pupils  re- 
flected different  phases  of  his  teaching  ideals, 
Professor  Auer  mentioned  that  he  had  long 
since  given  over  passing  final  decisions  on  his 
pupils.  "I  could  express  no  such  opinions 
without  unconsciously  implying  comparisons. 
And  so  few  comparisons  really  compare! 
Then,  too,  mine  would  be  merely  an  individual 
opinion.  Therefore,  as  has  been  my  custom 
for  years,  I  will  continue  to  leave  any  ultimate 
decisions  regarding  my  pupils'  playing  to  the 
public  and  the  press." 

HOURS  OF  PRACTICE 

"How  long  should  the  advanced  pupil  prac- 
tice?" Professor  Auer  was  asked.  "The  right 
kind  of  practice  is  not  a  matter  of  hours,"  he 
replied.  "Practice  should  represent  the  ut- 
most concentration  of  brain.  It  is  better  to 
play  with  concentration  for  two  hours  than  to 
practice  eight  without.  I  should  say  that 
four  hours  would  be  a  good  maximum  practice 
time — I  never  ask  more  of  my  pupils — and 
that  during  each  minute  of  the  time  the  brain 
be  as  active  as  the  fmgers. 


Leopold  A  uer  19 


NATIONALITY  TEBSUS  THE  CONSERVATORY 
SYSTEM 

"I  think  there  is  more  value  in  the  idea  of 
a  national  conservatory  than  in  the  idea  of  na- 
tionahty  as  regards  violin  playing.  No  mat- 
ter what  his  birthplace,  there  is  only  one  way  in 
which  a  student  can.  become  an  artist — and 
that  is  to  have  a  teacher  who  can  teach!  In 
Europe  the  best  teachers  are  to  be  found  in 
the  great  national  conservatories.  Thibaud, 
Ysaye — artists  of  the  highest  type — are  prod- 
ucts of  the  conservatory  system,  with  its  splen- 
did teachers.  So  is  Kreisler,  one  of  the  gi'eat- 
est  artists,  who  studied  in  Vienna  and  Paris. 
Eddy  Brown,  the  brilliant  American  viohnist, 
finished  at  the  Budapest  Conservatory.  In 
the  Paris  Conservatory  the  number  of  pupils 
in  a  class  is  strictly  limited ;  and  from  these  pu- 
pils each  professor  chooses  the  very  best — who 
may  not  be  able  to  pay  for  their  course — for 
free  instruction.  At  the  Petrograd  Conserva- 
tory, where  AVieniawski  preceded  me,  there 
w^ere  hundreds  of  free  scholarships  available. 
If  a  really  big  talent  came  along  he  always  had 
his  opportunity.  We  took  and  taught  those 
less  talented  at  the  Conservatory  in  order  to 


20  Violin  Mastery 

be  able  to  give  scholarships  to  the  deserving  of 
limited  means.  In  this  way  no  real  violinistic 
genius,  whom  poverty  might  otherwise  have 
kept  from  ever  realizing  his  dreams,  was  de- 
prived of  his  chance  in  life.  Among  the  pu- 
pils there  in  my  class,  having  scholarships,  were 
Kathleen  Parlow,  Elman,  Zimbalist,  Heifetz 
and  Seidel. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  mastery?  To  me  it  represents  the 
sum  total  of  accomplishment  on  the  part  of 
those  who  live  in  the  history  of  the  Art.  All 
those  who  may  have  died  long  since,  yet  the 
memory  of  whose  work  and  whose  creations 
still  lives,  are  the  true  masters  of  the  violin, 
and  its  mastery  is  the  record  of  their  accom- 
plishment. As  a  child  I  remember  the  well- 
known  composers  of  the  day  were  Marsclmer, 
Hiller,  Nicolai  and  others — yet  most  of  what 
they  have  written  has  been  forgotten.  On  the 
other  hand  there  are  Tartini,  Nardini,  Paga- 
nini,  Kreutzer,  Dont  and  Rode — they  still 
live;  and  so  do  Ernst,  Sarasate,  Vieuxtemps 
and  Wieniawski.  Joachim  (incidentally  the! 
only  great  German  violinist  of  whom  I  know 
— and  he  was  a  Hungarian!),  though  he  had 


Leopold  Auer  21 

but  few  great  pupils,  and  composed  but  little, 
will  alwaj's  be  remembered  because  he,  to- 
gether with  David,  gave  violin  virtuosity  a  no- 
bler trend,  and  introduced  a  higher  ideal  in  the 
music  played  for  violin.  It  is  men  such  as 
these  who  always  will  remain  violin  'masters,' 
just  as  Viohn  mastery'  is  defined  by  what  they 
have  done." 

THE  BACH  VIOLIN  SONATAS  AND  OTHER  COMPO- 
SITIONS 

Replying  to  a  question  as  to  the  value  of  the 
Bach  violin  sonatas.  Professor  Auer  said: 
"My  pupils  always  have  to  play  Bach.  I  have 
published  my  own  revision  of  them  with  a  New 
York  house.  The  most  impressive  thing  about 
these  Bach  solo  sonatas  is  they  do  not  need  an 
accompaniment:  one  feels  it  would  be  super- 
fluous. Bach  composed  so  rapidly,  he  wrote 
with  such  ease,  that  it  would  have  been  no 
trouble  for  him  to  supply  one  had  he  felt  it 
necessary.  But  he  did  not,  and  he  was  right. 
And  they  still  must  be  played  as  he  has  writ- 
ten them.  We  have  the  'modern'  orchestra, 
the  'modern'  piano,  but,  thank  heaven,  no 
'modern'  violin!  Such  indications  as  I  have 
made  in  my  edition  with  regard  to  bowing,  fin- 


22  Violin  Mastery 

gering,  nuances  of  expression,  are  more  or  less 
in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times;  but  not 
a  single  note  that  Bach  has  written  has  been 
changed.  The  sonatas  are  technically  among 
tlie  most  difficult  things  wi-itten  for  the  violin, 
excepting  Ernst  and  Paganini.  Not  that 
they  are  hard  in  a  modern  wny.  Bach  knew 
nothing  of  harmonics,  pizzicati,  scales  in  oc- 
taves and  tenths.  But  his  counterpoint,  his 
fugues — to  play  them  well  when  the  principal 
theme  is  sometimes  in  the  outer  voices,  some- 
times in  the  inner  voices,  or  moving  from  one 
to  the  other — is  supremely  difficult!  In  the 
last  sonatas  there  is  a  larger  number  of  small 
movements — but  this  does  not  make  them  any 
easier  to  play. 

"I  have  also  edited  the  Beethoven  sonatas 
together  with  Rudolph  Ganz.  He  worked  at 
the  piano  parts  in  New  York,  while  I  studied 
and  revised  the  violin  parts  in  Petrograd  and 
Norwaj^  where  I  spent  my  summers  during 
the  war.  There  was  not  so  much  to  do,"  said 
Professor  Auer  modestly,  "a  little  fingering, 
some  bowing  indications  and  not  much  else. 
No  reviser  needs  to  put  any  indications  for 
nuance  and  shading  in  Beethoven.  He  was 
quite  able  to  attend  to  all  that  himself.  There 
is  no  composer  who  shows  such  refinement  of 


Leopold  Auer  23 

nuance.  Yoii  need  only  to  take  his  quartets 
or  these  same  sonatas  to  convince  yourself  of 
the  fact.  In  my  Bralims  revisions  I  have  sup- 
plied really  needed  fingerings,  howings,  and 
other  indications!  Important  compositions 
on  which  I  am  now  at  work  include  Ernst's 
fine  Concerto,  Op.  23,  the  Mozart  violin  con- 
certos, and  Tartini's  Trille  du  diahle,  with  a 
special  cadenza  for  my  pupil,  Toscha  Seidel. 

AS  REGARDS  "PRODIGIES" 

"Prodigies?"  said  Professor  Auer.  "The 
word  'prodigy'  when  applied  to  some  youthful 
artist  is  always  used  with  an  accent  of  re- 
proach. Public  and  critics  are  inclined  to  re- 
gard them  with  suspicion.  Why?  After  all, 
the  important  thing  is  not  their  youth,  but  their 
artistry.  Examine  the  history  of  music — you 
will  discover  that  any  number  of  great  masters, 
great  in  •the  maturity  of  their  genius,  were 
great  in  its  infancy  as  well.  There  are  Mo- 
zart, Beethoven,  Liszt,  Rubinstein,  d'Albert, 
Ilofmann,  Scriabine,  Wieniawski — they  were 
all  'infant  prodigies,'  and  certainly  not  in  any 
objectionable  sense.  Not  that  I  wish  to  claim 
that  every  prodigy  necessarily  becomes  a  great 
master.     That  does  not  always  follow.    But  I 


24  Violin  Mastery 

believe  that  a  musical  prodigy,  instead  of  being 
regarded  with  suspicion,  has  a  right  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  striking  example  of  a  pro- 
nounced natural  predisposition  for  musical  art. 
Of  course,  full  mental  development  of  artistic 
power  must  come  as  a  result  of  the  maturing 
processes  of  life  itself.  But  I  firmly  believe 
that  every  prodigy  represents  a  valuable 
musical  phenomenon,  one  deserving  of  the 
keenest  interest  and  encouragement.  It  does 
not  seem  right  to  me  that  when  the  art  of  the 
prodigy  is  incontestably  great,  that  the  mere 
fact  of  his  youth  should  serve  as  an  excuse  to 
look  upon  him  wdth  prejudice,  and  even  with 
a  certain  degree  of  distrust." 


Ill 
EDDY  BROWN 

HUBAY  AND  AUER:     TECHNIC: 
HINTS  TO  THE  STUDENT 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Eddy 
Brown  was  born  in  Chicago,  111.,  and  that  he 
is  so  great  a  favorite  with  concert  audiences 
in  the  land  of  his  birth,  the  gifted  violinist  hesi- 
tates to  qualify  himself  as  a  strictly  "Amer- 
ican" violinist.  As  he  expresses  it:  "Musically 
I  was  altogether  educated  in  Europe — I  never 
studied  here,  because  I  left  this  country  at  the 
age  of  seven,  and  only  returned  a  few  years 
ago.  So  I  would  not  like  to  be  placed  in  the 
position  of  claiming  anything  under  false  pre- 
tenses ! 

HUBAY  AND   AUERI   SOME   COMPARISONS 

"With  whom  did  I  study?  With  two  fa- 
mous masters;  by  a  strange  coincidence  both 
Hungarians.     First  with  Jeno  Hubay,  at  the 

25 


2G  Violin  Mastery 

National  Academy  of  IMusic  in  Budapest, 
later  with  Leopold  Auer  in  Petrograd.  Hu- 
bay  had  been  a  pupil  of  Vieuxtemps  in  Brus- 
sels, and  is  a  justly  celebrated  teacher,  very 
thorough  and  painstaking  in  explaining  to  his 
pupils  how  to  do  things;  but  the  great  differ- 
ence between  Hubay  and  Auer  is  that  while 
Hubay  tells  a  student  how  to  do  things,  Auer, 
a  temperamental  teacher,  literally  drags  out 
of  him  whatever  there  is  in  him,  awakening  la- 
tent powers  he  never  knew  he  possessed.  Hu- 
bay is  a  splendid  builder  of  virtuosity,  and  has 
a  fine  sense  for  phrasing.  For  a  year  and  a 
half  I  worked  at  nothing  but  studies  with  him, 
giving  special  attention  to  technic.  He  did 
not  believe  in  giving  too  much  time  to  left  hand 
development,  when  without  adequate  bow  tech- 
nic finger  facilitj^  is  useless.  Here  he  was  in 
accord  with  Auer,  in  fact  with  every  teacher 
seriously  deserving  of  the  name.  Hubay  was 
a  first-class  pedagog,  and  imder  his  instruction 
one  could  not  help  becoming  a  well-balanced 
and  musicianly  player.  But  there  is  a  higher 
ideal  in  violin  playing  than  mere  correctness, 
and  Auer  is  an  inspiring  teacher.  Hubay  has 
written  some  admirable  studies,  notably 
twelve  studies  for  the  right  hand,  though  he 
never  stressed  technic  too  greatly.     On  the 


Eddy  Brox£ii  27 

other  hand,  Auer's  most  notable  contributions 
to  violin  literature  are  his  revisions  of  such 
Avorks  as  the  Bach  sonatas,  the  Tschaikovsky 
Concerto,  etc.  In  a  way  it  points  the  differ- 
ence in  their  mental  attitude:  Hubay  more  con- 
cerned with  the  technical  educational  means, 
one  which  cannot  be  overlooked;  Auer  more 
interested  in  the  interpretative,  artistic  educa- 
tional end,  which  has  always  claimed  his  at- 
tention. Hubay  personally  was  a  grand  seig- 
neur, a  multi-millionaire,  and  married  to  an 
Hungarian  countess.  He  had  a  fine  ear  for 
phrasing,  could  improvise  most  interesting 
violin  accompaniments  to  whatever  his  pupils 
played,  and  beside  Rode,  Kreutzer  and  Fior- 
illo  I  studied  the  concertos  and  other  repertory 
Morks  with  him.  Then  there  were  the  con- 
servatory lessons !  Attendance  at  a  European 
conservatory  is  verj''  broadening  musically. 
Xot  only  does  the  individual  violin  pupil,  for 
example,  profit  by  listening  to  his  colleagues 
play  in  class:  he  also  studies  theory,  musical 
history,  the  piano,  ensemble  playing,  chamber- 
music  and  orchestra.  I  was  concertmaster  of 
the  conservatory  orchestra  while  studying  with 
Hubay.  There  should  be  a  national  conserva- 
tory of  music  in  this  country;  music  in  general 
would  advance  more  rapidly.    And  it  would 


28  Violin  Mastery 

help  teach  American  students  to  approach  the 
art  of  violin  playing  from  the  right  point  of 
view.  As  it  is,  too  many  want  to  study  abroad 
under  some  renowned  teacher  not,  primarily, 
with  the  idea  of  becoming  great  artists ;  but  in 
the  hope  of  drawing  great  future  commercial 
dividends  from  an  initial  financial  investment. 
In  Art  the  financial  should  always  be  a  sec- 
ondary consideration. 

"It  stands  to  reason  that  no  matter  how 
great  a  student's  gifts  may  be,  he  can  profit 
by  study  with  a  great  teacher.  This,  I  think, 
applies  to  all.  After  I  had  already  appeared 
in  concert  at  Albert  Hall,  London,  in  1909, 
where  I  played  the  Beethoven  Concerto  with 
orchestra,  I  decided  to  study  with  Auer.  When 
I  first  came  to  him  he  wanted  to  know  why  I 
did  so,  and  after  hearing  me  play,  told  me  that 
I  did  not  need  any  lessons  from  him.  But  I 
knew  that  there  was  a  certain  'something' 
which  I  wished  to  add  to  my  violinistic  make- 
up, and  instinctively  felt  that  he  alone  could 
give  me  what  I  wanted.  I  soon  found  that  in 
many  essentials  his  ideas  coincided  with  those 
of  Hubay.  But  I  also  discovered  that  Auer 
made  me  develop  my  individuality  uncon- 
sciously, placing  no  undue  restrictions  whatso- 
ever upon  my  manner  of  expression,  barring, 


Eddy  Brown  29 

of  course,  unmusicianly  tendencies.  When  he 
has  a  really  talented  pupil  the  Professor  gives 
him  of  his  best.  I  never  gave  a  thought  to 
technic  while  I  studied  with  him — the  great 
things  w^ere  a  singing  tone,  bowing,  interpre- 
tation! I  studied  Brahms  and  Beethoven,  and 
though  Hubay  always  finished  with  the  Bach 
sonatas,  I  studied  them  again  carefully  with 
Auer. 


TECHNIC :  SOME  HINTS  TO  THE  STUDENT 

"At  the  bottom  of  all  technic  lies  the  scale. 
And  scale  practice  is  the  ladder  by  means  of 
which  all  must  climb  to  higher  proficiency. 
Scales,  in  single  tones  and  intervals,  thirds, 
sixths,  octaves,  tenths,  with  the  incidental 
changes  of  position,  are  the  foundation  of  tech- 
nic. They  should  be  practiced  slowly,  always 
with  the  development  of  tone  in  mind,  and  not 
too  long  a  time  at  any  one  session.  No  one 
can  lay  claim  to  a  perfected  technic  who  has 
not  mastered  the  scale.  Better  a  good  tone, 
even  though  a  hundred  mistakes  be  made  in 
producing  it,  than  a  tone  that  is  poor,  thin  and 
without  quality.  I  find  the  Singer  Fin- 
geruhungen  are  excellent  for  muscular  devel- 
opment in  scale  work,  for  imparting  the  great 


30  Violin  Mastery 

strength  which  is  necessary  for  the  fingers  to 
have;  and  the  Kreutzer  etudes  are  indispen- 
sable. To  secure  an  absokite  legato  tone,  a 
true  singing  tone  on  the  viohn,  one  should  play 
scales  with  a  perfectly  well  sustained  and 
steady  bow,  in  whole  notes,  slowly  and  mezzo- 
forte,  taking  care  that  each  note  is  clear  and 
pure,  and  that  its  volume  does  not  vary  during 
the  stroke.  The  quality  of  tone  must  be  equal- 
ized, and  each  whole  note  should  be  'sung'  with 
a  single  bowing.  The  change  from  up-bow  to 
down-bow  and  viee  versa  should  be  made  with- 
out a  break,  exclusively  through  skillful  manip- 
ulation of  the  wrist.  To  accomplish  this  un- 
broken change  of  bow  one  should  cultivate  a 
loose  wrist,  and  do  special  work  at  the  extreme 
ends,  nut  and  tip. 

"The  vibrato  is  a  great  tone  beautifier.  Too 
rapid  or  too  slow  a  vibrato  defeats  the  object 
desired.  There  is  a  happy  medium  of  tempo, 
rather  faster  than  slower,  which  gives  the  best 
results.  Carl  Flesch  has  some  interesting  the- 
ories about  vibration  which  are  worth  investi- 
gating. A  slow  and  a  moderately  rapid  vi- 
brato, from  the  wrist,  is  best  for  practice,  and 
the  underlying  idea  while  working  must  be 
tone,  and  not  fingerwork. 

''Staccato    is    one    of   the    less    important 


Eddy  Brown  31 


branches  of  bow  technic.  There  is  a  knack  in 
doing  it,  and  it  is  purely  pyrotechnical.  Stac- 
cato passages  in  quantity  are  only  to  be  found 
in  solos  of  the  virtuoso  type.  One  never  meets 
with  extended  staccato  passages  in  Beethoven, 
Brahms,  Bruch  or  Lalo.  And  the  Saint- 
Saens's  violin  concerto,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
contains  but  a  single  staccato  passage. 

"Spiccato  is  a  very  different  matter  from 
staccato:  violinists  as  a  rule  use  the  middle  of 
the  bow  for  spiccato:  I  use  the  upper  third  of 
the  bow,  and  thus  get  most  satisfactory  results, 
in  no  matter  what  tempo.  This  question  as 
to  what  portion  of  the  bow  to  use  for  spiccato 
each  violinist  must  decide  for  himself,  however, 
through  experiment.  I  have  tried  both  ways 
and  find  that  by  the  last  mentioned  use  of  the 
bow  I  secure  quicker,  cleaner  results.  Stu- 
dents while  practicing  this  bowing  should  take 
care  that  the  wrist,  and  never  the  arm,  be  used. 
Hubay  has  written  some  very  excellent  studies 
for  this  form  of  'springing  bow.' 

"The  trill,  when  it  rolls  quickly  and  evenly, 
is  a  trill  indeed !  I  never  had  any  difficulty  in 
acquiring  it,  and  can  keep  on  trilling  indefi- 
nitely without  the  slightest  unevenness  or 
slackening  of  speed.  Auer  himself  has  as- 
sured me  that  I  have  a  trill  that  runs  on  and 


32  Violin  Mastery 

on  without  a  sign  of  fatigue  or  uncertainty. 
The  trill  has  to  be  practiced  very  slowly  at 
first,  later  with  increasing  rapidity,  and  always 
with  a  firm  pressure  of  the  fingers.  It  is  a 
very  beautiful  embellishment,  and  one  much 
used;  one  finds  it  in  Beethoven,  Mendelssohn, 
Brahms,  etc. 

"Double  notes  never  seemed  hard  to  me,  but 
harmonics  are  not  as  easily  acquired  as  some 
of  the  other  violin  eif  ects.  I  advise  pressing 
down  the  first  finger  on  the  strings  inordi- 
nately, especially  in  the  higher  positions,  when 
playing  artificial  harmonics.  The  higher  the 
fingers  ascend  on  the  strings,  the  more  firmly 
they  should  press  them,  otherwise  the  harmon- 
ics are  apt  to  grow  shrill  and  lose  in  clearness. 
The  majority  of  students  have  trouble  with 
their  harmonics,  because  they  do  not  practice 
them  in  this  way.  Of  course  the  quality  of  the 
harmonics  produced  varies  with  the  quality  of 
the  strings  that  produce  them.  First  class 
strings  are  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  pro- 
duction of  pure  harmonics.  Yet  in  the  case 
of  the  artist,  he  himself  is  held  responsible,  and 
not  his  strings. 

"Octaves?  Occasionally,  as  in  Auer's 
transcript  of  Beethoven's  Dance  of  the  Der^ 
visheSj  or  in  the  closing  section  of  the  Ernst 


Eddy  Brown  33 


Concerto,  when  they  are  used  to  obtain  a  cer- 
tain weird  effect,  they  sound  well.  But  ordi- 
narily, if  cleanly  played,  they  sound  like  one- 
note  successions.  In  the  examples  mentioned, 
the  so-called  'fingered  octaves,'  which  are  very 
difficult,  are  employed.  Ordinary  octaves  are 
not  so  troublesome.  After  all,  in  octave  play- 
ing we  simply  double  the  notes  for  the  purpose 
of  making  them  more  powerful. 

"As  regards  the  playing  of  tenths,  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  interval  always  sounds  con- 
strained, and  hardly  ever  euphonious  enough 
to  justify  its  difficulty,  especially  in  rapid  pas- 
sages. Yet  Paganini  used  this  awkward  in- 
terval very  freely  in  his  compositions,  and  one 
of  his  'Caprices'  is  a  variation  in  tenths,  which 
should  be  played  more  often  than  it  is,  as  it 
is  very  effective.  In  this  connection  change 
of  position,  which  I  have  already  touched  on 
with  regard  to  scale  playing,  should  be  so 
smooth  that  it  escapes  notice.  Among  special 
effects  the  glissando  is  really  beautiful  when 
properly  done.  And  this  calls  for  judgment. 
It  might  be  added,  though,  that  the  glissando 
is  an  effect  which  should  not  be  overdone.  The 
portamento — gliding  from  one  note  to  an- 
other— is  also  a  lovely  effect.     Its  proper  and 


34  Violin  Mastery 

timely  application  calls  for  good  judgment  and 
sound  musical  taste. 


A  SPANISH  VIOLIN 

"I  usually  play  a  'Strad,'  but  very  often  turn 
to  my  beautiful  'Guillami,'  "  said  Mr.  Brown 
when  asked  about  his  violins.  "It  is  an  old 
Spanish  violin,  made  in  Barcelona,  in  1728, 
with  a  tone  that  has  a  distinct  Stradivarius 
character.  In  appearance  it  closely  resembles 
a  Guadagnini,  and  has  often  been  taken  for 
one.  When  the  dealer  of  whom  I  bought  it 
first  showed  it  to  me  it  was  complete — but  in 
four  distinct  pieces!  Kubelik,  who  was  in 
Budapest  at  the  time,  heard  of  it  and  wanted 
to  buy  it;  but  the  dealer,  as  was  only  right, 
did  not  forget  that  my  offer  represented  a 
prior  claim,  and  so  I  secured  it.  The  Guadag- 
nini, which  I  have  played  in  all  my  concerts 
here,  I  am  very  fond  of — it  has  a  Stradivarius 
tone  rather  than  the  one  we  usually  associate 
with  the  make."  Mr.  Brown  showed  the 
writer  his  Grancino,  a  beautiful  little  instru- 
ment about  to  be  sent  to  the  repair  shop,  since 
exposure  to  the  damp  atmosphere  of  the  sea- 
shore had  opened  its  seams — and  the  rare  and 


Eddy  Brotcn  .35 

valuable  Simon  bow,  now  his,  which  had  once 
been  the  property  of  Sivori.  INIr.  Brown  has 
used  a  wire  E  ever  since  he  broke  six  gut 
strings  in  one  hour  while  at  Seal  Harbor, 
Maine.  "A  wire  string,  I  find,  is  not  only 
easier  to  play,  but  it  has  a  more  brilliant  qual- 
ity of  tone  than  a  gut  string;  and  I  am  now 
so  accustomed  to  using  a  wire  E,  that  I  would 
feel  ill  at  ease  if  I  did  not  have  one  on  my  in- 
strument. Contrary  to  general  belief,  it  does 
not  sound  'metallic,'  unless  the  string  itself  is 
of  very  poor  quality. 

PROGRAMS 

"In  making  up  a  recital  program  I  try  to 
arrange  it  so  that  the  first  half,  approximately, 
may  appeal  to  the  more  specifically  musical 
part  of  my  audience,  and  to  the  critics.  In  the 
second  half  I  endeavor  to  remember  the  gen- 
eral public;  at  the  same  time  being  careful  to 
include  nothing  which  is  not  really  musical. 
This  (Mr.  Brown  found  one  of  his  recent  pro- 
grams on  his  desk  and  handed  it  to  me)  rep- 
resents a  logical  compromise  between  the 
strictly  artistic  and  the  more  general  taste :" 


36  Violin  Mastery 


PROGRAM 

I.  Beethoven Sonata,    Op.    47    (dedicated   to 

Kreutzer) 
II.  Bruch Concerto   (G  minor) 

III.  (a)   Beethoven    ....     Ron>ance    (in  G  major) 

(b)  Beethoven-Auer  .     .     Chorus  of  -the  Dervishes 

(c)  Brown Rondino  (on  a  Cramer  theme) 

(d)  Arbos Tango 

IV.  (a)  Kreisler La  Gitana 

(Arabo-Spanish   Gipsy   Dance   of  the    18th   Century) 

(b)  Cui Orientale 

(c)  Bazzini La  Ronde  des  Lutins 

"As  you  see  there  are  two  extended  serious 
works,  followed  by  two  smaller  'groups'  of 
pieces.  And  these  have  also  been  chosen  with 
a  view  to  contrast.  The  finale  of  the  Bruch 
concerto  is  an  allegro  energico :  I  follow  it  with 
a  Beethoven  Romance,  a  slow  movement.  The 
second  group  begins  with  a  taking  Kreisler 
novelty,  which  is  succeeded  by  another  slow 
number ;  but  one  very  effective  in  its  working- 
up ;  and  I  end  my  program  with  a  brilliant  vir- 
tuoso number. 


VIOLIN    MASTERY 

"My  own  personal  conception  of  violin  mas- 
tery," concluded  Mr.  Brown,  "might  be  de- 


Eddy  Brotcn  37 

fined  as  follows:  'An  individual  tone  produc- 
tion, or  rather  tone  quality,  consummate  musi- 
cianship in  phrasing  and  interpretation,  abil- 
ity to  rise  above  all  mechanical  and  intellectual 
effort,  and  finally  the  power  to  express  that 
which  is  dictated  by  one's  imagination  and 
emotion,  with  the  same  natural  simplicity  and 
spontaneity  with  which  the  thought  of  a  really 
great  orator  is  expressed  in  the  easy,  uncon- 
strained flow  of  his  language.'  " 


IV 
MISCHA  ELMAN 

LIFE  AND  COLOR  IN  INTERPRETATION. 
TECHNICAL  PHASES 

To  hear  Mischa  Elman  on  the  concert  plat- 
form, to  listen  to  him  play,  "with  all  that 
wealth  of  tone,  emotion  and  impulse  which 
places  him  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  liv- 
ing violinists,"  should  be  joy  enough  for  any 
music  lover.  To  talk  with  him  in  his  own 
home,  however,  gives  one  a  deeper  insight  into 
his  art  as  an  interpreter;  and  in  the  pleasant 
intimacy  of  familiar  conversation  the  writer 
learned  much  that  the  serious  student  of  the 
violin  will  be  interested  in  knowing. 

MANNERISMS   IN   PLAYING 

We  all  know  that  Elman,  when  he  plays  in 
public,  moves  his  head,  moves  his  body,  sways 
in  time  to  the  music;  in  a  word  there  are  cer- 
tain mannerisms  associated  with  his  playing 

38 


Mischa  Elman  39 

which  critics  have  on  occasion  mentioned  with 
grave  suspicion,  as  evidences  of  sensationalism. 
Half  fearing  to  insult  him  by  asking  whether 
he  was  "sincere,"  or  whether  his  motions  were 
"stage  business"  carefully  rehearsed,  as  had 
been  implied,  I  still  ventured  the  question. 
He  laughed  boyishly  and  was  evidently  much 
amused. 

"No,  no,"  he  said.  "I  do  not  study  up  any 
'stage  business'  to  help  out  my  playing!  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  ought  to  compare  myself 
to  a  dancer,  but  the  appeal  of  the  dance  is  in 
all  musical  movement.  Certain  rhythms  and 
musical  combinations  affect  me  subcon- 
sciously. I  suppose  the  direct  influence  of  the 
music  on  me  is  such  that  there  is  a  sort  of  emo- 
tional reflex:  I  move  with  the  music  in  an  un- 
conscious translation  of  it  into  gesture.  It  is 
all  so  individual.  The  French  violinists  as  a 
rule  play  very  correctly  in  public,  keeping 
their  eye  on  finger  and  bow.  And  this  appeals 
to  me  strongly  in  theory.  In  practice  I  seem 
to  get  away  from  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  temper- 
ament I  presume.  I  am  willing  to  believe  I'm 
not  graceful,  but  then — I  do  not  know  whether 
I  move  or  do  not  move!  Some  of  my  friends 
have  spoken  of  it  to  me  at  various  times,  so  I 
suppose  I  do  move,  and  sway  and  all  the  rest ; 


40  Violin  Mastery 

but  any  movements  of  the  sort  must  be  uncon- 
scious, for  I  myself  know  nothing  of  them. 
And  the  idea  that  they  are  'prepared'  as  'stage 
effects'  is  dehghtfuH"  And  again  Ehnan 
laughed. 

LIFE  AND   COLOR  IN   INTERPRETATION 

"For  that  matter,"  he  continued,  "every  real 
artist  has  some  mannerisms  when  playing,  I 
imagine.  Yet  more  than  mannerisms  are 
needed  to  impress  an  American  audience.  Life 
and  color  in  interpretation  are  the  true  secrets 
of  great  art.  And  beauty  of  interpretation 
depends,  first  of  all,  on  variety  of  color.  Tech- 
nic  is,  after  all,  only  secondary.  No  matter 
how  well  played  a  composition  be,  its  perform- 
ance must  have  color,  nuance,  movement,  life ! 
Each  emotional  mood  of  the  moment  must  be 
fully  expressed,  and  if  it  is  its  appeal  is  sure. 
I  remember  when  I  once  played  for  Don  Man- 
uel, the  young  ex -king  of  Portugal,  in  Lon- 
don, I  had  an  illustration  of  the  fact.  He  was 
just  a  pathetic  boy,  verj^  democratic,  and  per- 
sonally very  likeable.  He  was  somewhat  neg- 
lected at  the  time,  for  it  is  well  known  and  not 
altogether  unnatural,  that  royalty  securely  es- 
tablished finds  'kings  in  exile'  a  bit  embarrass- 


Mischa  Elman  41 

ing.  Don  Manuel  was  a  music-lover,  and  es- 
pecially fond  of  Bach.  I  had  had  long  talks 
with  the  young  king  at  various  times,  and  my 
sympathies  had  been  aroused  in  his  behalf.  On 
the  evening  of  which  I  speak  I  played  a  Cho- 
pin Nocturne^  and  I  know  that  into  my  play- 
ing there  went  some  of  my  feeling  for  the 
pathos  of  the  situation  of  this  young  stranger 
in  a  strange  land,  of  my  own  age,  eating  the 
bitter  bread  of  exile.  When  I  had  finished, 
the  Marchioness  of  Ripon  touched  my  arm: 
'Look  at  the  King!'  she  whispered.  Don  Man- 
uel had  been  moved  to  tears. 

"Of  course  the  purely  mechanical  must  al- 
ways be  dominated  by  the  artistic  personality 
of  the  player.  Yet  technic  is  also  an  impor- 
tant part  of  inter jjretation :  knowing  exactly 
how  long  to  hold  a  bow,  the  most  delicate  in- 
flections of  its  pressure  on  the  strings.  There 
must  be  perfect  sympathy  also  with  the  com- 
poser's thought;  his  si)irit  must  stand  behind 
the  personality  of  the  artist.  In  the  case  of 
certain  famous  compositions,  like  the  Bee- 
thoven concerto,  for  instance,  this  is  so  well  es- 
tablished that  the  artist,  and  never  the  com- 
poser, is  held  responsible  if  it  is  not  well 
played.  But  too  rigorous  an  adherence  to 
'tradition'  in  playing  is  also  an  extreme.     I 


42  Violin  Mastery 

once  played  privately  for  Joachim  in  Berlin: 
it  was  the  Bach  Chaconne.  Now  the  edition 
I  used  was  a  standard  one:  and  Joachim  was 
extremely  reverential  as  regards  traditions. 
Yet  he  did  not  hesitate  to  indicate  some 
changes  which  he  thought  should  be  made  in 
the  version  of  an  authoritative  edition,  because 
'they  sounded  better.'  And  'How  does  it 
sound?'  is  really  the  true  test  of  all  interpre- 
tation." 

ABSOLUTE    PITCH    THE    FIRST    ESSENTIAL    OF    A 
PERFECTED  TECHNIC 

"What  is  the  fundamental  of  a  perfected 
violin  technic?"  was  a  natural  question  at  this 
point.  "Absolute  pitch,  first  of  all,"  replied 
Elman  promptly.  "Many  a  violinist  plays  a 
difficult  passage,  sounding  every  note ;  and  yet 
it  sounds  out  of  tune.  The  first  and  second 
movements  of  the  Beethoven  concerto  have  no 
double-stops;  yet  they  are  extremely  difficult 
to  play.  Why?  Because  they  call  for  abso- 
lute pitch :  they  must  be  played  in  perfect  tune 
so  that  each  tone  stands  out  in  all  its  fullness 
and  clarity  like  a  rock  in  the  sea.  And  with- 
out a  fundamental  control  of  pitch  such  a  mas- 
ter work  will  always  be  beyond  the  violinist's 


Mischa  Elman  43 

reach.  Many  a  player  has  the  facihty;  but 
without  perfect  intonation  he  can  never  attain 
the  highest  perfection.  On  the  other  hand, 
any  one  who  can  play  a  single  phrase  in  abso- 
lute pitch  has  the  first  and  great  essential. 
Few  artists,  not  barring  some  of  the  greatest, 
play  with  perfect  intonation.  Its  control  de- 
pends first  of  all  on  the  ear.  And  a  sensitive 
ear  finds  differences  and  shading;  it  bids  the 
violinist  play  a  trifle  sharper,  a  trifle  flatter, 
according  to  the  general  harmonic  color  of  the 
accompaniment;  it  leads  him  to  observe  a  dif- 
ference, when  the  harmonic  atmosphere  de- 
mands it,  between  a  C  sharp  in  the  key  of  E 
major  and  a  D  flat  in  the  same  key. 

TECHNICAL  PHASES 

"Every  player  finds  some  phases  of  technic 
easy  and  others  difficult.  For  instance,  I  have 
never  had  to  work  hard  for  quality  of  tone — 
when  I  wish  to  get  certain  color  effects  they 
come:  I  have  no  difficulty  in  expressing  my 
feelings,  my  emotions  in  tone.  And  in  a  tech- 
nical way  spiccato  bowing,  which  many  find  so 
hard,  has  always  been  easy  to  me.  I  have 
never  had  to  work  for  it.  Double-stops,  on 
the  contrarv,  cost  me  hours  of  intensive  work 


44  Violin  Mastery 

before  I  played  them  with  ease  and  facility. 
What  did  I  practice?  Scales  in  double-stops 
— they  give  color  and  variety  to  tone.  And 
I  gave  up  a  certain  portion  of  my  regular  prac- 
tice time  to  passages  from  concertos  and  so- 
natas. There  is  wonderful  work  in  double- 
stops  in  the  Ernst  concerto  and  in  the  Paga- 
nini  l^tudes,  for  instance.  With  octaves  and 
tenths  I  have  never  had  any  trouble :  I  have  a 
broad  hand  and  a  wide  stretch,  which  accounts 
for  it,  I  suppose. 

"Then  there  are  harmonics,  flageolets — I 
have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  they 
should  be  considered  so  difficult !  They  should 
not  be  white,  colorless;  but  call  for  just  as 
much  color  as  any  other  tones  (and  any  one 
who  has  heard  Mischa  Elman  play  harmonics 
knows  that  this  is  no  mere  theory  on  his  part) . 
I  never  think  of  harmonics  as  'harmonics,'  but 
try  to  give  them  just  as  much  expressive  qual- 
ity as  the  notes  of  any  other  register.  The 
mental  attitude  should  influence  their  produc- 
tion— too  many  vioHnists  think  of  them  only 
as  incidental  to  pyrotechnical  display. 

"And  fingering?  Fingering  in  general 
seems  to  me  to  be  an  individual  matter.  A 
concert  artist  may  use  a  certain  fingering  for 
a  certain  passage  which  no  pupil  should  use. 


Mischa  Elman  45 

and  be  entirely  justified  if  he  can  thus  secure 
a  certain  effect. 

"I  do  not — speaking  out  of  my  own  experi- 
ence— believe  much  in  methods:  and  never  to 
the  extent  that  they  be  allowed  to  kill  the  stu- 
dent's individuality.  A  clear,  clean  tone 
should  always  be  the  ideal  of  his  striving.  And 
to  that  end  he  must  see  that  the  up  and  down 
bows  in  a  passage  like  the  following  from  the 
Bach  sonata  in  A  minor  (and  Mr.  Elman  hast- 
ily jotted  down  the  subjoined)  are  absolutely 


even,  and  of  the  same  length,  played  with  the 
same  strength  and  length  of  bow,  otherwise 
the  notes  are  swallowed.  In  light  spiccato 
and  staccato  the  detached  notes  should  be 
played  always  with  a  single  stroke  of  the  bow. 
Some  players,  strange  to  say,  find  staccato 
notes  more  difficult  to  play  at  a  moderate 
tempo  than  fast.  I  believe  it  to  be  altogether 
a  matter  of  control — if  proper  control  be  there 
the  tempo  makes  no  difference.  Wieniawski, 
I  have  read,  could  only  play  his  staccati  at  a 
high  rate  of  speed.  Spiccato  is  generally  held 
to  be  more  difficult  than  staccato;  yet  I  myself 
find  it  easier. 


46  Violin  Mastery 


PROPORTION    IN    PRACTICE 

"To  influence  a  clear,  singing  tone  with  the 
left  hand,  to  phrase  it  properly  with  the  bow 
hand,  is  most  important.  And  it  is  a  matter 
of  proportion.  Good  phrasing  is  spoiled  by 
an  ugly  tone:  a  beautiful  singing  tone  loses 
meaning  if  improperly  phrased.  When  the 
student  has  reached  a  certain  point  of  tech- 
nical development,  technic  must  be  a  second- 
ary— yet  not  neglected — consideration,  and  he 
should  devote  himself  to  the  production  of  a 
good  tone.  Many  violinists  have  missed  their 
career  by  exaggerated  attention  to  either  bow 
or  violin  hand.  Both  hands  must  be  watched 
at  the  same  time.  And  the  question  of  pro- 
portion should  always  be  kept  in  mind  in  prac- 
ticing studies  and  passages :  pressure  of  fingers 
and  pressure  of  bow  must  be  equalized,  co- 
ordinated. The  teacher  can  only  do  a  cer- 
tain amount:  the  pupil  must  do  the  rest. 

AUER  AS  A  TEACHER 

"Take  Auer  for  example.  I  may  call  my- 
self the  first  real  exponent  of  his  school,  in  the 
sense  of  making  his  name  widely  known.  Auer 


Mischa  El  man  47 

is  a  great  teacher,  and  leaves  much  to  the  in- 
dividuahty  of  his  pupils.  He  first  heard  me 
play  at  the  Imperial  JMusic  School  in  Odessa, 
and  took  me  to  Petrograd  to  study  with  him, 
which  I  did  for  a  year  and  four  months.  And 
he  could  accomplish  wonders!  That  one  year 
he  had  a  little  group  of  four  pupils  each  one 
better  than  the  other — a  very  stimulating  sit- 
uation for  all  of  them.  There  was  a  mag- 
netism about  him:  he  literally  hypnotized  his 
pupils  into  doing  better  than  their  best — 
though  in  some  cases  it  was  evident  that  once 
the  support  of  his  magnetic  personality  was 
withdrawn,  the  pupil  fell  back  into  the  level 
from  which  he  had  been  raised  for  the  time 
being. 

"Yet  Auer  respected  the  fact  that  tempera- 
mentally I  was  not  responsive  to  this  form  of 
appeal.  He  gave  me  of  his  best.  I  never 
practiced  more  than  two  or  three  hours  a  day 
— just  enough  to  keep  fresh.  Often  I  came 
to  my  lesson  unprepared,  and  he  would  have 
me  play  things — sonatas,  concertos — which  I 
had  not  touched  for  a  year  or  more.  He  was  a 
severe  critic,  but  always  a  just  one. 

"I  can  recall  how  proud  I  was  when  he  sent 
me  to  beautiful  music-loving  Helsingfors,  in 
Finland — where  all  seems  to  be  bloodshed  and 


48  Violin  Mastery 

confusion  now — to  plaj^  a  recital  in  his  own 
stead  on  one  occasion,  and  how  proud  he  was 
of  my  success.  Yet  Auer  had  his  Httle  pe- 
cuharities.  I  have  read  somewhere  that  the 
great  fencing-masters  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  were  very  jealous  of  the 
secrets  of  their  famous  feints  and  ripostes,  and 
only  confided  them  to  favorite  pupils  who 
promised  not  to  reveal  them.  Auer  had  his 
little  secrets,  too,  with  which  he  was  loth  to 
part.  When  I  was  to  make  my  debut  in  Ber- 
lin, I  remember,  he  was  naturally  enough  in- 
terested— since  I  was  his  pupil — in  my  scor- 
ing a  triumph.  And  he  decided  to  part  with 
some  of  his  treasured  technical  thrusts  and  par- 
ries. And  when  I  was  going  over  the  Tschai- 
kovsky  D  minor  concerto  (which  I  was  to 
play),  he  would  select  a  passage  and  say: 
'Now  I'll  play  this  for  you.  If  you  catch  it, 
well  and  good ;  if  not  it  is  your  own  fault !'  I 
am  happy  to  say  that  I  did  not  fail  to  'catch' 
his  meaning  on  any  occasion.  Auer  really  has 
a  wonderful  intellect,  and  some  secrets  well 
worth  knowing.  That  he  is  so  great  an  artist 
himself  on  the  instrument  is  the  more  remark- 
able, since  physically  he  was  not  exceptionally 
favored.  Often,  when  he  saw  me,  he'd  say 
with  a  sigh:  'Ah,  if  I  only  had  your  hand!' 


Mischa  Elm  an  49 

"Auer  was  a  great  virtuoso  player.  He 
held  a  unique  place  in  the  Imperial  Ballet. 
You  know  in  many  of  the  celebrated  ballets, 
Tschaikovsky's  for  instance,  there  occur  beau- 
tiful and  difficult  solos  for  the  violin.  They 
call  for  an  artist  of  the  first  rank,  and  Auer 
was  accustomed  to  play  them  in  Petrograd. 
In  Russia  it  was  considered  a  decided  honor 
to  be  called  upon  to  play  one  of  those  ballet 
solos ;  but  in  London  it  was  looked  on  as  some- 
thing quite  incidental.  I  remember  when 
Diaghilev  presented  Tschaikovsky's  Lac  des 
Cygnes  in  London,  the  Grand-Duke  Andrew 
Vladimirev  (who  had  heard  me  play),  an  ami- 
able young  boy,  and  a  patron  of  the  arts,  re- 
quested me — and  at  that  time  the  request  of 
a  Romanov  was  still  equivalent  to  a  command 
— to  play  the  violin  solos  which  accompany  the 
love  scenes.  It  was  not  exactly  easy,  since 
I  had  to  play  and  watch  dancers  and  conduc- 
tor at  the  same  time.  Yet  it  was  a  novelty  for 
London,  however;  everybody  was  pleased  and 
the  Grand-Duke  presented  me  with  a  hand- 
some diamond  pin  as  an  acknowledgment. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"You  ask  me  what  I  understand  by  'Violin 
Mastery'  ?    Well,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  artist 


50  Violin  Mastery 

who  can  present  anything  he  plays  as  a  dis- 
tinct picture,  in  every  detail,  framing  the  com- 
poser's idea  in  the  perfect  beauty  of  his  plastic 
rendering,  with  absolute  truth  of  color  and 
proportion — he  is  the  artist  who  deserves  to 
be  called  a  master ! 

"Of  course,  the  instrument  the  artist  uses  is 
an  important  factor  in  making  it  possible  for 
him  to  do  his  best.  My  violin?  It  is  an  au- 
thentic Strad — dated  1722.  I  bought  it  of 
Willy  Burmester  in  London.  You  see  he  did 
not  care  much  for  it.  The  German  style  of 
playing  is  not  calculated  to  bring  out  the  tone 
beauty,  the  quality  of  the  old  Italian  fiddles. 
I  think  Burmester  had  forced  the  tone,  and  it 
took  me  some  time  to  make  it  mellow  and 
truly  responsive  again,  but  now  .  .  ."  Mr. 
Elman  beamed.  It  was  evident  he  was  satisfied 
with  his  instrument.  "As  to  strings,"  he  con- 
tinued, "I  never  use  wire  strings — they  have 
no  color,  no  quality! 

WHAT  TO  STUDY  AND  HOW 

"For  the  advanced  student  there  is  a  wealth 
of  study  material.  No  one  ever  wrote  more 
beautiful  violin  music  than  Haendel,  so  rich  in 


Mischa  Elman  51 

invention,  in  harmonic  fullness.  In  Beethoven 
there  are  more  ideas  than  tone — but  such  ideas ! 
Schubert — all  genuine,  spontaneous!  Bach  is 
so  gigantic  that  the  violin  often  seems  inade- 
quate to  express  him.  That  is  one  reason  why 
I  do  not  play  more  Bach  in  public. 

"The  study  of  a  sonata  or  concerto  should 
entirely  absorb  the  attention  of  the  student  to 
such  a  degree  that,  as  he  is  able  to  play  it,  it 
has  become  a  part  of  him.  He  should  be  able 
to  play  it  as  though  it  were  an  improvisation 
— of  course  without  doing  violence  to  the  com- 
poser's idea.  If  he  masters  the  composition  in 
the  way  it  should  be  mastered  it  becomes  a 
portion  of  himself.  Before  I  even  take  up  my 
violin  I  study  a  piece  thoroughly  in  score.  I 
read  and  reread  it  until  I  am  at  home  with 
the  composer's  thought,  and  its  musical  bal- 
ance and  proportion.  Then,  when  I  begin  to 
play  it,  its  salient  points  are  already  memo- 
rized, and  the  practicing  gives  me  a  kind  of 
photographic  reflex  of  detail.  After  I  have 
not  played  a  number  for  a  long  time  it  fades 
from  my  memory — like  an  old  negative — but  I 
need  only  go  over  it  once  or  twice  to  have  a 
clear  mnemonic  picture  of  it  once  more. 


52  Violin  Mastery 


TRANSCRIPTIONS 

1 

"Yes,  I  believe  in  transcriptions  for  the  vio- 
lin— with  certain  provisos,"  said  Mr.  Elman,  in 
reply  to  another  question.  "First  of  all  the 
music  to  be  transcribed  must  lend  itself  nat- 
urally to  the  instrument.  xVhnost  any  really 
good  melodic  line,  especially  a  cantilena,  will 
sound  with  a  fitting  harmonic  development. 
Violinists  of  former  days  like  Spohr,  Rode  and 
Paganini  were  more  intent  on  composing  music 
out  of  the  violin!  The  modern  idea  lays  stress 
first  of  all  on  the  idea  in  music.  In  transcrib- 
ing I  try  to  forget  I  am  a  violinist,  in  order 
to  form  a  perfect  picture  of  the  musical  idea — 
its  violinistic  development  must  be  a  natural, 
subconscious  working-out.  If  you  will  look 
at  some  of  my  recent  transcripts — the  Albaniz 
Tango,  the  negro  melody  Deep  River  and 
Amani's  fine  Orientate — you  will  see  what  I 
mean.  They  are  conceived  as  pictures — I  have 
not  tried  to  analyze  too  much — and  while  so 
conceiving  them  their  free  harmonic  back- 
ground shapes  itself  for  me  without  strain  oi^ 
effort. 


Mischa  Elman  53 

A   REMINISCENCE   OF   COLONNE 

"Conductors  with  whom  I  have  played? 
There  are  many:  Hans  Richter,  who  was  a 
master  of  the  baton ;  Nikisch,  one  of  the  great- 
est in  conducting  the  orchestral  accompani- 
ment to  a  violin  solo  number ;  Colonne  of  Paris, 
and  many  others.  I  had  an  amusing  experience 
with  Colonne  once.  He  brought  his  orchestra 
to  Russia  while  I  was  with  Auer,  and  was 
giving  a  concert  at  Pavlovsk,  a  summer  resort 
near  Petrograd.  Colonne  had  a  perfect  hor- 
ror of  'infant  prodigies,'  and  Auer  had  ar- 
ranged for  me  to  play  with  his  orchestra  with- 
out telling  him  my  age — I  was  eleven  at  the 
time.  When  Colonne  saw  me,  violin  in  hand, 
ready  to  step  on  the  stage,  he  drew  himself 
up  and  said  with  emphasis:  'I  play  with  a 
prodigy!  Never!'  Nothing  could  move  him, 
and  I  had  to  play  to  a  piano  accompaniment. 
After  he  had  heard  me  play,  though,  he  came 
over  to  me  and  said:  'The  best  apolog;y'  I  can 
make  for  what  I  said  is  to  ask  you  to  do  me  the 
honor  of  playing  with  the  Orchestre  Colonne 
in  Paris.'  He  was  as  good  as  his  word.  Four 
months  later  I  went  to  Paris  and  played  the 
JNIendelssohn  concerto  for  him  with  great  suc- 
cess." 


V 
SAMUEL  GARDNER 

TECHNIC  AND  MUSICIANSHIP 

Samuel  Gardner^  though  born  in  Jelisavet- 
grad,  Cherson  province,  in  Southern  Russia, 
in  1891,  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  an 
American,  since  his  family,  fleeing  the  tj^r- 
anny  of  an  Imperialistic  regime  of  "po- 
groms" and  "Black  Hundreds,"  brought  him 
to  this  country  when  a  mere  child ;  and  here  in 
the  United  States  he  has  become,  to  quote 
Richard  Aldrich,  "the  serious  and  accom- 
plished artist,"  whose  work  on  the  concei-t 
stage  has  given  such  pleasure  to  lovers  of  violin 
music  at  its  best.  The  j'^oung  violinist,  who  in 
the  course  of  the  same  week  had  just  won  two 
prizes  in  composition — the  Pulitzer  Prize 
(Columbia)  for  a  string  quartet,  and  the  Loeb 
Prize  for  a  symphonic  poem — was  amiably 
willing  to  talk  of  his  study  experience  for  the 
benefit  of  other  students. 

5i 


Samuel  Gardner  55 


CHARLES  MARTIN  LOEFFLER  AND  FELIX  WINTER- 
NITZ  AS  TEACHERS 

*'I  took  up  the  study  of  the  violin  at 
the  age  of  seven,  and  when  I  was  nine  I 
went  to  Charles  Martin  Loeffler  and  really 
began  to  work  seriously.  Loeffler  was  a  very 
strict  teacher  and  very  exacting,  but  he 
achieved  results,  for  he  had  a  most  original 
way  of  making  his  points  clear  to  the  student. 
He  started  off  with  the  Sevcik  studies,  laying 
great  stress  on  the  proper  finger  articulation. 
And  he  taught  me  absolute  smoothness  in 
change  of  position  when  crossing  the  strings. 
For  instance,  in  the  second  book  of  Sevcik's 
'Technical  Exercises,'  in  the  third  exercise, 
the  bow  crosses  from  G  to  A,  and  from  D  to  E, 
leaving  a  string  between  in  each  crossing.  Well, 
I  simply  could  not  manage  to  get  to  the  second 
string  to  be  played  without  the  string  in  be- 
tween sounding!  Loeffler  showed  me  what  ev- 
ery good  fiddler  must  learn  to  do:  to  leap  from 
the  end  of  the  down-bow  to  the  up-bow  and 
vice  versa  and  then  hesitate  the  fraction  of  a 
moment,  thus  securing  a  smooth,  clean-cut 
tone,  without  any  vibration  of  the  intermediate 
string.     Loeffler  never  gave  a  pupil  any  rest 


56  Violin  Mastery 

until  lie  came  up  to  his  requirements.  I  know 
when  I  played  the  seventh  and  eighth  Kreut- 
zer  studies  for  him — they  are  trill  studies — he 
said :  'You  trill  like  an  electric  bell,  but  not  fast 
enough!'  And  he  kept  at  me  to  speed  up  my 
tempo  without  loss  of  clearness  or  tone-vol- 
ume, until  I  could  do  justice  to  a  rapid  trill. 
It  is  a  great  quality  in  a  teacher  to  be  literally 
able  to  enforce  the  pupil's  progress  in  certain 
directions;  for  though  the  latter  may  not  ap- 
preciate it  at  the  time,  later  on  he  is  sure  to  do 
so.  I  remember  once  when  he  was  trying  to 
explain  the  perfect  crescendo  to  me,  fire-en- 
gine bells  began  to  ring  in  the  distance,  the 
sound  gradually  drawing  nearer  the  house  in 
Charles  Street  w^here  I  was  taking  my  lesson. 
'There  you  have  it!'  Loeffler  cried:  'There's 
your  ideal  crescendo!  Play  it  like  that  and  I 
will  be  satisfied!'  I  remained  with  Loeffler  a 
year  and  a  half,  and  when  he  went  to  Paris  be- 
gan to  study  with  Felix  Winternitz. 

"Felix  Winternitz  was  a  teacher  who  al- 
lowed his  pupils  to  develop  individuality.  *I 
care  nothing  for  theories,'  he  used  to  saj^  'so 
long  as  I  can  see  something  original  in  your 
work!'  He  attached  little  importance  to  the 
theory  of  technic,  but  a  great  deal  to  technical 
development  along  individual  lines.     And  he 


Samuel  Gardner  57 

always  encouraged  me  to  express  myself  freely, 
within  my  limitations,  stressing  the  musical 
side  of  my  w  ork.  With  him  I  played  through 
the  concertos  which,  after  a  time,  I  used  foi^ 
technical  material,  since  every  phase  of  technic 
and  bowing  is  covered  in  these  great  works.  I 
was  only  fifteen  when  I  left  Winternitz  and 
still  played  by  instinct  rather  than  intellect- 
ually. I  still  used  my  bow  arm  somewhat 
stiffly,  and  did  not  think  much  about  j)hrasing. 
I  instinctively  phrased  whatever  the  music  it- 
self made  clear  to  me,  and  what  I  did  not  un- 
derstand I  merely  played. 

kneisel's  teaching  methods 

"But  when  I  came  to  Franz  Kneisel,  my  last 
teacher,  I  began  to  work  with  my  mind. 
Kneisel  showed  me  that  I  had  to  think  when  I 
played.  At  first  I  did  not  realize  why  he  kept 
at  me  so  insistently  about  phrasing,  interpreta- 
tion, the  exact  observance  of  expression  marks ; 
but  eventually  it  dawned  on  me  that  he  waSt 
teaching  me  to  read  a  soul  into  each  composi- 
tion I  studied. 

"I  practiced  hard,  from  four  to  five  hours 
a  day.  Fortunately,  as  regards  technical  equip- 
ment, I  was  ready  for  Kneisel's  instruction. 


58  Violiri  Mastery 

The  first  thing  he  gave  me  to  study  was,  not  a 
brilHant  virtuoso  piece,  but  the  Bach  concerto 
in  E  major,  and  then  the  Viotti  concerto.  In 
the  beginning,  until  Kneisel  showed  me,  I  did 
not  know  what  to  do  with  them.  This  was 
music  whose  notes  in  themselves  were  easj^  and 
whose  difficulties  were  all  of  an  individual  or- 
der. But  intellectual  analysis,  interpretation, 
are  Kneisel's  great  points.  A  strict  teacher,  I 
worked  with  him  for  five  years,  the  most  re- 
markable years  of  all  my  violin  study. 

"Kneisel  knows  how  to  develop  technical 
perfection  without  using  technical  exercises. 
I  had  already  played  the  Mendelssohn,  Bruch 
and  Lalo  concertos  with  Winternitz,  and  these 
I  now  restudied  with  Kneisel.  In  interpreta- 
tion he  makes  clear  every  phrase  in  its  relation 
to  every  other  phrase  and  the  movement  as  a 
whole.  And  he  insists  on  his  pupils  studying 
theory  and  composition — something  I  had 
formerly  not  been  inclined  to  take  seriously. 

"Some  teachers  are  satisfied  if  the  student 
plays  his  notes  correctly,  in  a  general  way. 
With  Kneisel  the  very  least  detail,  a  trill,  a 
scale,  has  to  be  given  its  proper  tone-color  and 
dynamic  shading  in  absolute  proportion  with 
the  balancing  harmonies.     This  trill,  in  the 


Samuel  Gardner  59 

first  movement  of  the  Beethoven  concerto — 
(and  Mr.  Gardner  jotted  it  down) 


Kneisel  kept  me  at  during  the  entire  lesson, 
till  I  was  able  to  adjust  its  tone-color  and 
nuances  to  the  accompanying  harmony.  Then, 
though  many  teachers  do  not  know  it,  it  is  a 
tradition  in  the  orchestra  to  make  a  diminuendo 
in  the  sixth  measure,  before  the  change  of  key 
to  C  major,  and  this  diminuendo  should,  of 
course,  be  observed  by  the  solo  instrument  as 
well.  Yet  you  will  hear  well-known  artists 
play  the  trill  throughout  with  a  loud,  brilliant 
tone  and  no  dynamic  change ! 

"Kneisel  makes  it  a  point  to  have  all  his 
pupils  play  chamber  music  because  of  its  truly 
broadening  influence.  And  he  is  unexcelled 
in  taking  apart  structurally  the  Beethoven, 
Brahms,  Tschaikovsky  and  other  quartets,  in 
analyzing  and  explaining  the  wonderful  plan- 
ning and  building  up  of  each  movement.  I 
had  the  honor  of  playing  second  violin  in  the 
Kneisel  Quartet  from  September  to  February 
(1914-1915),  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  a 


60  Violin  Mastery 

most  interesting  experience.  The  musicianship 
Kneisel  had  given  me ;  I  was  used  to  his  style 
and  at  home  with  his  ideas,  and  am  happy  to 
think  that  he  was  satisfied.  A  year  later  as 
assistant  concertmaster  in  the  Chicago  Sym- 
phony Orchestra,  I  had  a  chance  to  become 
practically  acquainted  with  the  orchestral 
works  of  Strauss,  d'Indy  and  other  moderns, 
and  enjoy  the  Beethoven,  Brahms  and  Tschai- 
kovsky  symphonies  as  a  performer. 

TECHNIC  AND  MUSICIANSHIP 

"How  do  I  regard  technic  now?  I  think  of 
it  in  the  terms  of  the  music  itself.  Music  should 
dictate  the  technical  means  to  be  used.  The 
composition  and  its  phrases  should  determine 
bowing  and  the  tone  quality  employed.  One 
should  not  think  of  down-bows  or  up-bows. 
In  the  Brahms  concerto  you  can  find  many 
long  phrases:  they  cannot  be  played  with  one 
bow ;  yet  there  must  be  no  apparent  change  of 
bow.  If  the  player  does  not  know  what  the 
phrase  means;  how  to  interpret  it,  how  will 
he  be  able  to  bow  it  correctly? 

"And  there  are  so  many  different  nuances, 
especially  in  legato.  It  is  as  a  rule  produced 
by  a  slurred  bow ;  yet  it  may  also  be  produced 


Samuel  Gardner  61 

by  other  bowings.  To  secure  a  good  legato 
tone  watch  the  singer.  The  singer  can  estab- 
hsh  the  perfect  smoothness  that  legato  calls 
for  to  perfection.  To  secure  a  like  effect  the 
violinist  should  convey  the  impression  that 
there  is  no  point,  no  frog,  that  the  bow  he  uses 
is  of  indefinite  length.  And  the  violinist  should 
never  think:  T  must  play  this  up-bow  or  down- 
bow.'  Artists  of  the  German  school  are  more 
apt  to  begin  a  phrase  with  a  down-bow;  the 
French  start  playing  a  good  deal  at  the  point. 
Up  or  down,  both  are  secondary  to  finding  out, 
first  of  all,  what  quality,  what  balance  of  tone 
the  phrase  demands.  The  conductor  of  a  sym- 
phonic orchestra  does  not  care  how,  technically, 
certain  effects  are  produced  by  the  violins, 
whether  they  use  an  up-bow  or  a  down-bow. 
He  merely  says:  'That's  too  heavy:  give  me 
less  tone!'  The  result  to  be  achieved  is  al- 
ways more  important  than  the  manner  of 
achievement. 

"All  phases  of  technical  accomplishment,  if 
rightly  acquired,  tend  to  become  second  nature 
to  the  player  in  the  course  of  time :  staccato,  a 
brilliant  trick ;  spiccato,  the  reiteration  of  notes 
played  from  the  wrist,  etc.  The  martellato,  a^ 
nuance  of  spiccato,  should  be  played  with  a 
firm  bowing  at  the  point.     In  a  very  broad 


62  Violin  Mastery 

spiccato,  the  arm  may  be  brought  into  play; 
but  otherwise  not,  since  it  makes  rapid  play- 
ing impossible.  Too  many  amateurs  try  to 
play  spiccato  from  the  arm.  And  too  many 
teachers  are  contented  with  a  trill  that  is 
merely  brilliant.  Kneisel  insists  on  what  he 
calls  a  'musical  trill,'  of  which  Kreisler's  beauti- 
ful trill  is  a  perfect  example.  The  trill  of  some 
violinists  is  invariably  brilliant,  whether  bril- 
liancy is  appropriate  or  not.  Brilliant  trills 
in  Bach  always  seem  out  of  place  to  me;  while 
in  Paganini  and  in  Wieniawski's  Carnaval  de 
Venise  a  high  brilliant  trill  is  very  effective. 

"As  to  double-stops — Edison  once  said  that 
violin  music  should  be  written  only  in  double- 
stops — I  practice  them  playing  first  the  single 
notes  and  then  the  two  together,  and  can 
recommend  this  mode  of  practice  from  per- 
sonal experience.  Harmonics,  where  clarity  is 
the  most  important  thing,  are  mainly  a  matter 
of  bowing,  of  a  sure  attack  and  sustaining  by 
the  bow.  Of  course  the  harmonics  themselves 
are  made  by  the  fingers ;  but  their  tone  quality, 
rests  altogether  with  the  bow. 

EDISON  AND  OCTAVES 

"The  best  thing  I've  ever  heard  said  of  oc- 
taves was  Edison's  remark  to  me  that  'They 


Samuel  Gardner  63 

are  merely  a  nuisance  and  should  not  be^ 
played!'  I  was  making  some  records  for  him 
during  the  experimental  stage  of  the  disk  rec- 
ord, when  he  was  trying  to  get  an  absolutely 
smooth  legato  tone,  one  that  conformed  to 
Loeffler's  definition  of  it  as  'no  breaks'  in  the 
tone.  He  had  had  Schubert's  Ave  Maria  re- 
corded by  Flesch,  MacMillan  and  others,  and 
wanted  me  to  play  it  for  him.  The  records 
were  all  played  for  me,  and  whenever  he  came 
to  the  octave  passages  Edison  would  say: 
'Listen  to  them!  How  badly  they  sound!'  Yet 
the  octaves  were  absolutely  in  tune !  'Why  do 
they  sound  so  badly?'  I  inquired. 

"Then  Edison  explained  to  me  that  accord- 
ing to  the  scientific  theory  of  vibration,  the 
vibrations  of  the  higher  tone  of  the  octaves 
should  be  exactly  twice  those  of  the  lower  note. 
'But  here,'  he  continued,  'the  vibrations  of  the 
notes  all  vary.'  'Yet  how  can  the  player  con- 
trol his  fingers  in  the  vibrato  bej^ond  playing 
his  octaves  in  perfect  tune?'  I  asked.  'Well, 
if  he  cannot  do  so,'  said  Edison,  'octaves  are 
merely  a  nuisance,  and  should  not  be  played  at 
all.'  I  experimented  and  found  that  by  simply 
pressing  down  the  fingers  and  playing  without 
any  vibrato,  I  could  come  pretty  near  secur- 
ing the  exact  relation  between  the  vibrations 


64  Violin  Mastery 

of  the  upper  and  lower  notes  but — they 
sounded  dreadful!  Of  course,  octaves  sound 
well  in  ensemble,  especially  in  the  orchestra, 
because  each  player  plays  but  a  single  note. 
And  tenths  sound  even  better  than  octaves 
when  two  people  play  them. 

WIRE  AND  GUT   STRINGS 

"You  ask  about  my  violin?  It  belonged  to 
the  famous  Hawley  collection,  and  is  a  Giovan- 
ni Baptista  Guadignini,  made  in  1780,  in 
Turin.  The  back  is  a  single  piece  of  maple- 
wood,  having  a  broadish  figure  extending 
across  its  breadth.  The  maple-wood  sides 
match  the  back.  The  top  is  formed  of  a  very 
choice  piece  of  spruce,  and  it  is  varnished  a 
deep  golden-red.  It  has  a  remarkably  fine 
tone,  very  vibrant  and  with  great  carrying 
power,  a  tone  that  has  all  that  I  can  ask  for  as 
regards  volume  and  quality. 

*T  think  that  wire  strings  are  largely  used 
now-a-days  because  gut  strings  are  hard  to 
obtain — not  because  thej^  are  better.  I  do  not 
use  wire  strings.  I  have  tried  them  and  find 
them  thin  in  tone,  or  so  brilliant  that  their  tone 
is  too  piercing.  Then,  too,  I  find  that  the  use 
of  a  wire  E  reduces  the  volume  of  tone  of  the 


Samuel  Gardner  65 

other  strings.  No  wire  string  has  the  quality 
of  a  fine  gut  string;  and  I  regard  them  only 
as  a  substitute  in  the  case  of  some  people,  and 
a  convenience  for  lazy  ones. 


VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  Mastery?  Off-hand  I  might  say  the 
phrase  stands  for  a  life-time  of  effort  with  its 
highest  aims  unattained.  As  I  see  it  the  achieve- 
ment of  violin  mastery  represents  a  combina- 
tion of  90  per  cent,  of  toil  and  10  per  cent,  of 
talent  or  inspiration.  Goetschius,  with  whom 
I  studied  composition,  once  said  to  me:  'I  do 
not  congratulate  you  on  having  talent.  That 
is  a  gift.  But  I  do  congratulate  you  on  being 
able  to  work  hard!'  The  same  thing  applies 
to  the  fiddle.  It  seems  to  me  that  only  by  keep- 
ing everlastingly  at  it  can  one  become  a  mas- 
ter of  the  instrument." 


VI 
ARTHUR  HARTMANN 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  TECHNIC 

Arthur  Hartmann  is  distinctly  and  un- 
mistakably a  personality.  He  stands  out  even 
in  that  circle  of  distinguished  contemporary 
violinists  which  is  so  largely  made  up  of  per- 
sonalities. He  is  a  composer — not  only  of 
violin  pieces,  but  of  symphonic  and  choral 
works,  chamber  music,  songs  and  piano  num- 
bers. His  critical  analysis  of  Bach's  Chaconne, 
translated  into  well-nigh  every  tongue,  is  prob- 
ably the  most  complete  and  exhaustive  study 
of  "that  triumph  of  genius  over  matter"  writ- 
ten. And  besides  being  a  master  of  his  own  in- 
strument he  plays  the  viola  d'amore,  that 
sweet-toned  survival,  with  sympathetic  strings, 
of  the  17th  century  viol  family,  and  the  Hun- 
garian czimhalom.  Nor  is  his  mastery  of  the 
last-named  instrument  "out  of  drawing,"  for 
we  must  remember  that  Mr.  Hartmann  was 
born  in  Mate  Szalka,  in  Southern  Hungary. 

66 


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Arthur  Hartmann 


Arthur  Hartmann  67 

Then,  too,  IVIr.  Hartmann  is  a  genial  and  orig- 
inal thinker,  a  litterateur  of  no  mean  ability, 
a  bibliophile,  the  intimate  of  the  late  Claude 
Debussj^,  and  of  many  of  the  great  men  of 
musical  Europe.  Yet  from  the  reader's  stand- 
point the  interest  he  inspires  is,  no  doubt, 
mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  not  onlj^  is  he  a 
great  interpreting  artist — but  a  great  artist 
doubled  by  a  great  teacher,  an  unusual  com- 
bination. 

Characteristic  of  ]?.Ir.  Hartmann's  hospital- 
ity (the  writer  had  passed  a  pleasant  hour  with 
him  some  years  before,  but  had  not  seen  him 
since ) ,  was  the  fact  that  he  insisted  in  brewing 
Turkish  coffee,  and  making  his  caller  feel  quite 
at  home  before  even  allowing  him  to  broach  the 
subject  of  his  visit.  And  when  he  learned 
that  its  purpose  was  to  draw  on  his  knowledge 
and  experience  for  information  which  would 
be  of  value  to  the  serious  student  and  lover  of 
his  art,  he  did  not  refuse  to  respond. 

WHAT  VIOLIN  PLAYING  REALLY  IS 

"Violin  playing  is  really  no  abstract  mys- 
tery. It's  as  clear  as  geography  in  a  way:  one 
might  say  the  whole  art  is  bounded  on  the 
South  by  the  G  string,  on  the  North  by  the  E 


68  Violin  Mastery 

string,  on  the  West  by  the  string  hand — and 
that's  about  as  far  as  the  comparison  may  be 
carried  out.  The  point  is,  there  are  definite 
boundaries,  whose  technical  and  esthetic  hmits 
may  be  extended,  and  territorial  annexations 
made  through  brain  power,  mental  control.  To 
me  'Violin  Mastery'  means  taking  this  little 
fiddle-box  in  hand  [and  Mr.  Hartmann  suited 
action  to  word  by  raising  the  lid  of  his  violin- 
case  and  drawing  forth  his  beautiful  1711 
Strad],  and  doing  just  what  I  want  with  it. 
And  that  means  having  the  right  finger  on  the 
right  place  at  the  right  time — but  don't  forget 
that  to  be  able  to  do  this  you  must  have  for- 
gotten to  think  of  your  fingers  as  fingers.  They 
should  be  simply  unconscious  slaves  of  the 
artist's  psychic  expression,  absolutely  sub- 
servient to  his  ideal.  Too  many  people  reverse 
the  process  and  become  slaves  to  their  fingers. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  TECHNIC 

"Technic,  for  instance,  in  its  mechanical 
sense,  is  a  much  exaggerated  microbe  of  Ma- 
teria musica.  All  technic  must  conform  to  its 
instrument.*    The  violin  was  made  to  suit  the 

*  This  is  the  idea  which  underlies  my  system  for  ear-trainins: 
and  absolute  pitch,  "Arthur  Hartraann's  System,"  as  I  call  it, 
which  I  have  published.     A.  H. 


Arthur  Hartmann  69 

hand,  not  the  hand  to  suit  the  violin,  hence  its 
technic  must  be  based  on  a  natural  logic  of 
hand  movement.  The  whole  problem  of  tech- 
nical control  is  encountered  in  the  first  change 
of  position  on  the  violin.  If  we  violinists  could 
play  in  but  one  position  there  would  be  no 
technical  problem.  The  solution  of  this  prob- 
lem means,  speaking  broadly,  the  ability  to 
play  the  violin — for  there  is  only  one  way  of 
playing  it — with  a  real,  full,  singing  Violin' 
tone.  It's  not  a  question  of  a  method,  but 
just  a  process  based  on  pure  reason,  the  work- 
ing out  of  rational  principles. 

"What  is  the  secret  of  this  singing  tone? 
Well,  you  may  call  it  a  secret,  for  many  of  my 
pupils  have  no  inkling  of  it  when  they  first 
come  here,  though  it  seems  verj^  much  of  an 
'open  secret'  to  me.  The  finished  beauty  of  the 
violin  'voice'  is  a  round,  sustained,  absolutely 
smooth  cantahile  tone.  Now  [Mr.  Hartmann 
took  up  his  Strad],  I'll  play  you  the  scale  of 
G  as  the  average  violin  student  plays  it.  You 
see — each  slide  from  one  tone  to  the  next,  a 
break — a  rosary  of  lurches!  How  can  there 
be  a  round,  harmonious  tone  when  the  fingers 
progress  by  jerks?  Shifting  position  must  not 
be  a  continuous  movement  of  effort,  but  a  con- 
tinuous movement  in  which  effort  and  relaxa-i 


70  Violin  Mastery 

tion — that  of  dead  weight — alternate.  As  an 
illustration,  when  we  walk  we  do  not  con- 
sciously set  down  one  foot,  and  then  swing  for- 
ward the  other  foot  and  leg  with  a  jerk.  The 
forward  movement  is  smooth,  unconscious,  co- 
ordinated: in  putting  the  foot  forward  it  car- 
ries the  weight  of  the  entire  body,  the  move- 
ment becomes  a  matter  of  instinct.  And  the 
same  applies  to  the  progression  of  the  fingers 
in  shifting  the  position  of  the  hand.  Now, 
playing  the  scale  as  I  now  do — only  two  fingers 
should  be  used — 


i 


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1 — I — r=^*  ><*  ^-r- 


-g-*-  :3: 


I  prepare  every  shift.  Absolute  accuracy  of 
intonation  and  a  singing  legato  is  the  result. 
These  guiding  notes  indicated  are  merely  a 
test  to  prove  the  scientific  spacing  of  the  violin ; 
they  are  not  sounded  once  control  of  the  hand 
has  been  obtained.  Tliey  serve  only  to  accus- 
tom the  fingers  to  keep  moving  in  the  direc- 
tion in  which  they  are  going. 

"The  tone  is  produced  by  the  left  hand,  by 


Arthur  Hartmann  71 

the  weight  of  the  fingers  plus  an  undercur- 
rent of  sustained  effort.  Now,  you  see,  if  in 
the  moment  of  sliding  you  prepare  the  bow  for 
the  neoct  string,  the  slide  itself  is  lost  in  the 
crossing  of  the  how.  To  carry  out  consistently 
this  idea  of  effort  and  relaxation  in  the  down- 
ward progression  of  the  scale,  you  will  find 
that  when  you  are  in  the  third  position,  the  po- 
sition of  the  hand  is  practically  the  same  as  in 
the  first  position.  Hence,  in  order  to  go  down 
from  third  to  first  position  with  the  hand  in 
what  might  be  called  a  'block'  position,  an-[ 
other  movement  is  called  for  to  bridge  over  this 
space  (between  third  and  first  position),  and 
this  movement  is  the  function  of  the  thumb. 
The  thumb,  preceding  the  hand,  relaxes  the 
wrist  and  helps  draw  the  hand  back  to  first 
position.  But  great  care  must  be  taken  that 
the  thumb  is  not  moved  until  the  first  finger 
will  have  been  played ;  otherwise  there  will  be^ 
a  tendency  to  flatten.  In  the  illustration  the 
indication  for  the  thumb  is  placed  after  the 
note  played  by  the  first  finger. 

"The  inviolable  law  of  beautiful  playing  is 
that  there  must  be  no  angles.  As  I  have  shown 
you,  right  and  left  hand  coordinate.  The  fiddle 
hand  is  preparing  the  change  of  position,  while 
the  change  of  strings  is  prepared  by  the  right 


72  Violin  Mastery 

hand.  And  always  the  slides  in  the  left  hand 
are  prepared  by  the  last  played  finger — the 
last  played  finger  is  the  true  guide  to  smooth 
progression — just  as  the  bow  hand  prepares 
the  slides  in  the  last  played  bowing.  There 
should  be  no  such  thing  as  jumping  and  trust- 
ing in  Providence  to  land  right,  and  a  curse 
ought  to  be  laid  on  those  who  let  their  fingers 
leave  the  fingerboai'd.  None  who  develop  this 
fundamental  aspect  of  all  good  playing  lose 
the  perfect  control  of  position. 

"Of  course  there  are  a  hundi-ed  nuances  of 
technic  (into  which  the  quality  of  good  taste 
enters  largely)  that  one  could  talk  of  at 
length:  phrasing,  and  the  subtle  things  hap- 
pening in  the  bow  arm  that  influence  it;  spic- 
cato,  whose  whole  secret  is  finding  the  right 
point  of  balance  in  the  bow  and,  with  light 
finger  control,  never  allowing  it  to  leave  the 
string.  I've  never  been  able  to  see  the  virtue 
of  octaves  or  the  logic  of  double-stops.  Like 
tenths,  one  plays  or  does  not  play  them.  But 
do  they  add  one  iota  of  beauty  to  violin  music? 
I  doubt  it!  And,  after  all,  it  is  the  poetry  of 
playing  that  counts.  All  violin  playing  in  its 
essence  is  the  quest  for  color;  its  perfection, 
that  subtle  art  which  hides  art,  and  which  is 
so  rarely  understood." 


Arthur  Hartmann  73 

"Could  you  give  me  a  few  guiding  rules,  a 
few  Beatitudes,  as  it  were,  for  the  serious 
student  to  follow?"  I  asked  Mr.  Hartmann. 
Though  the  artist  smiled  at  the  idea  of  Beati- 
tudes for  the  violinist,  yet  he  was  finally 
amiable  enough  to  give  me  the  following,  tell- 
ing me  I  would  have  to  take  them  for  what 
they  were  worth : 

NINE  BEATITUDES  FOR  VIOLINISTS 

"Blessed  are  they  who  early  in  life  approach 
Bach,  for  their  love  and  veneration  for  music 
will  multiply  with  the  years. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  remember  their  own 
early  struggles,  for  their  merciful  criticism  will 
help  others  to  a  greater  achievement  and  fur- 
therance of  the  Divine  Art. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  know  their  own  limi- 
tations, for  they  shall  have  joy  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  others. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  revere  the  teachers — 
their  own  or  those  of  others — and  who  remem- 
ber them  with  credit. 

"Blessed  are  they  who,  revering  the  old  mas- 
ters, seek  out  the  newer  ones  and  do  not  be- 
grudge them  a  hearing  or  two. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  work  in  obscurity, 


74  Violin  Mastery 

nor  sound  the  trumpet,  for  Art  has  ever  been 
for  the  few,  and  shuns  the  vulgar  blare  of  ig- 
norance. 

"Blessed  are  they  whom  men  revile  as  fu- 
turists and  modernists,  for  Art  can  evolve  only 
through  the  medium  of  iconoclastic  spirits. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  unflinchingly  serve 
their  Ai't,  for  thus  only  is  their  happiness  to 
be  gained. 

"Blessed  are  they  who  have  many  enemies, 
for  square  pegs  will  never  fit  into  round  holes." 

AERANGING  VERSUS  TRANSCRIBING 

Arthur  Hartmann,  like  Kreisler,  Elman, 
Maud  Powell  and  others  of  his  colleagues,  has 
enriched  the  literature  of  the  violin  with  some 
notably  fine  transcriptions.  And  it  is  a  sub- 
ject on  which  he  has  well-defined  opinions  and 
regarding  which  he  makes  certain  distinctions : 
"An  'arrangement,'  "  he  said,  "as  a  rule,  is  a 
purely  commercial  affair,  into  which  neither  art 
nor  aesthetics  enter.  It  usually  consists  in 
writing  off  the  melody  of  a  song — in  other 
words,  playing  the  'tune'  on  an  instrument  in- 
stead of  hearing  it  sung  with  words — or  in  the 
case  of  a  piano  composition,  in  writing  off  the 
upper  voice,  leaving  the  rest  intact,  regardless 


Arthur  Hartmann  75 

of  sonority,  tone-color  or  even  effectiveness, 
and,  furthermore,  without  consideration  of  the 
idiomatic  principles  of  the  instrument  to  which 
the  adaptation  was  meant  to  fit. 

"A  'transcription,'  on  the  other  hand,  can  be 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  an  art-work.  Indeed, 
at  times  it  may  even  surpass  the  original,  in 
the  quality  of  thought  brought  into  the  work, 
the  delicate  and  sympathetic  treatment  and 
by  the  many  subleties  which  an  artist  can  in- 
troduce to  make  it  thoroughly  a  re-creation  of 
his  chosen  instrument. 

"It  is  the  transcriber's  privilege — provid- 
ing he  be  sufficiently  the  artist  to  approach  the 
personality  of  another  artist  with  reverence — 
to  donate  his  own  gifts  of  ingenuity,  and  to 
exercise  his  judgment  in  either  adding,  omit- 
ting, harmonically  or  otherwise  embellishing 
the  work  {ivhile  preserving  the  original  idea 
and  characteristics),  so  as  to  thoroughly  re- 
create it,  so  completely  destroying  the  very 
sensing  of  the  original  timbre  that  one  involun- 
tarily exclaims,  'Truly,  this  never  was  anything 
but  a  violin  piece !'  It  is  this,  the  blending  and 
fusion  of  two  personalities  in  the  achievement 
of  an  art-ideal,  that  is  the  result  of  a  true 
adaptation. 

"Among  the  transcriptions  I  have  most  en- 


76  Violin  Mastery 

joyed  making  were  those  of  Debussy's  II 
pleure  dans  mon  coeur,  and  JLa  Fille  auw 
cheveaux  de  lin,  Debussy  was  my  cherished 
friend,  and  they  represent  a  labor  of  love. 
Though  Debussy  was  not,  generally  speaking^ 
an  advocate  of  transcriptions,  he  liked  these, 
and  I  remember  when  I  first  played  La  Fille 
atuv  cheveauoc  de  lin  for  him,  and  came  to  a  bit 
of  counterpoint  I  had  introduced  in  the  violin 
melody,  whistling  the  harmonics,  he  nodded  ap- 
provingly with  a  'jpas  bete  fa!'  (Not  stupid, 
that!) 

Debussy's  poeme  for  violin 

"Debussy  came  near  writing  a  violin  piece 
for  me  once!"  continued  Mr.  Hartmann,  and 
brought  out  a  folio  containing  letters  the  great 
impressionist  had  written  him.  They  were  a 
dehghtful  revelation  of  the  human  side  of 
Debussy's  character,  and  Mr.  Hartmann 
kindly  consented  to  the  quotation  of  one  bear- 
ing on  the  Poeme  for  violin  which  Debussy  had 
promised  to  write  for  him,  and  which,  alas,  ow- 
ing to  his  illness  and  other  reasons,  never 
actually  came  to  be  written : 

"Dear  Friend: 

"Of  course  I  am  working  a  great  deal  now,  because 
I  feel  the  need  of  writing  music,  and  would  find  it  diffi- 


Arthur  Hartmann  77 

cult  to  build  an  aeroplane;  yet  at  times  Music  is  ill- 
natured,  even  toward  those  who  love  her  most!  Then  I 
take  my  little  daughter  and  my  hat  and  go  walking  in 
the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  where  one  meets  people  who  have 
come  from  afar  to  bore  themselves  in  Paris. 

"I  think  of  you,  I  might  even  say  I  am  in  need  of  5'ou 
(assume  an  air  of  exaltation  and  bow,  if  you  please !) 
As  to  the  Poeme  for  violin,  you  may  rest  assured  that  I 
will  write  it.  Only  at  the  present  moment  I  am  so  pre- 
occupied with  the  'Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher !'  They 
talk  too  much  to  me  about  it.  I'll  have  to  put  an  end  to 
all  that  or  I  will  go  mad.  Once  more  I  want  to  write  it, 
and  above  all  on  your  account.  And  I  believe  you  will  be 
the  only  one  to  play  the  Poeme.  Others  will  attempt  it, 
and  then  quickly  return  to  the  Mendelssohn  Concerto ! 

"Believe  me  always  your  sincere  friend, 

"Claude  Debussy." 

"He  never  did  write  it,"  said  Mr.  Hart- 
mann, "but  it  was  not  for  want  of  good  will. 
As  to  other  transcriptions,  I  have  never  done 
any  that  I  did  not  feel  instinctively  would  make 
good  fiddle  pieces,  such  as  IMacDowell's  To 
a  Wild  Rose  and  others  of  his  compositions. 
And  recently  I  have  transcribed  some  fine 
Russian  things — Gretchaninoff's  Chant  dfAu- 
tomne,  Karagitscheff's  Exaltation,  Tschai- 
kovsky*s  Humoresque,  Balakirew's  Chant  du 
Pecheur,  and  Poldini's  little  Poupee  valsante, 
which  Maud  Powell  plays  so  delightfully  on 
all  her  programs." 


VII 
JASCHA  HEIFETZ 

THE  DANGER  OF  PRACTICING  TOO  MUCH. 

TECHNICAL  MASTERY  AND 

TEMPERAMENT 

Mature  in  virtuosity — the  modern  virtuos- 
ity which  goes  so  far  beyond  the  mere  technical 
mastery  that  once  made  the  term  a  reproach — 
though  young  in  years,  Jascha  Heifetz,  when 
one  makes  his  acquaintance  "off-stage,"  seems 
singularly  modest  about  the  great  gifts  which 
have  brought  him  international  fame.  He  is 
amiable,  unassuming  and — the  best  proof,  per- 
haps, that  his  talent  is  a  thing  genuine  and  in- 
born, not  the  result  of  a  forcing  process — he 
has  that  broad  interest  in  art  and  in  life  going 
far  beyond  his  own  particular  medium,  the 
violin,  without  which  no  artist  may  become 
truly  great.  For  Jascha  Heifetz,  with  his 
wonderful  record  of  accomplishment  achieved, 
and  with  triumphs  still  to  come  before  him, 
does  not  believe  in  "all  work  and  no  play." 

78 


Jascha  Hkiketz 


Jascha  Heifetz  79 


THE  DANGER  OF  PRACTICING  TOO  MUCH 

He  laughed  when  I  put  forward  the  theory 
that  he  worked  many  hours  a  day,  perhaps  as 
many  as  six  or  eight?  "No,"  he  said,  "I  do  not 
think  I  could  ever  have  made  any  progress  if 
I  had  practiced  six  hours  a  day.  In  the  first 
place  I  have  never  believed  in  practicing  too 
much — it  is  just  as  bad  as  practicing  too  little! 
And  then  there  are  so  many  other  things  I 
like  to  do.  I  am  fond  of  reading  and  I  like 
sport:  tennis,  golf,  bicycle  riding,  boating, 
swimming,  etc.  Often  when  I  am  supposed  to 
be  practicing  hard  I  am  out  with  my  camera, 
taking  pictures;  for  I  have  become  what  is 
known  as  a  'camera  fiend.'  And  just  now  I 
have  a  new  car,  which  I  have  learned  to  drive, 
and  which  takes  up  a  good  deal  of  my  time. 
I  have  never  believed  in  grinding.  In  fact  I 
think  that  if  one  has  to  work  very  hard  to  get 
his  piece,  it  will  show  in  the  execution.  To  in- 
terpret music  properly,  it  is  necessary  to 
eliminate  mechanical  difficulty;  the  audience 
should  not  feel  the  struggle  of  the  artist  witl^ 
what  are  considered  hard  passages.  I  hardly 
ever  practice  more  than  three  hours  a  day  on 
an  average,  and  besides,  I  keep  my  Sunday 


80  Violin  Mastery 

when  I  do  not  play  at  all,  and  sometimes  I 
make  an  extra  holiday.  As  to  six  or  seven 
hours  a  day,  I  would  not  have  been  able  to 
stand  it  at  all." 

I  implied  that  what  ^Ir.  Heifetz  said  might 
shock  thousands  of  aspiring  young  violinists 
for  whom  he  pointed  a  moral:  "Of  course,"  his 
answer  was,  "you  must  not  take  me  too  lit- 
erally. Please  do  not  think  because  I  do  not 
favor  overdoing  practicing  that  one  can  do 
without  it.  I'm  quite  frank  to  say  I  could  not 
myself.  But  there  is  a  happy  medium.  I 
suppose  that  when  I  play  in  public  it  looks 
easy,  but  before  I  ever  came  on  the  concert 
stage  I  worked  very  hard.  And  I  do  yet — but 
always  putting  the  two  things  together,  mental 
work  and  physical  work.  And  when  a  certain 
point  of  effort  is  reached  in  practice,  as  in 
ever}i;hing  else,  there  must  be  relaxation. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  VIETUOSE  TECHNIC 

"Have  I  what  is  called  a  'natural'  technic? 
It  is  hard  for  me  to  say,  perhaps  so.  But  if 
such  is  the  case  I  had  to  develop  it,  to  assure 
it,  to  perfect  it.  If  you  start  playing  at  three, 
as  I  did,  with  a  little  ^-iolin  one-quarter  of  the 
regular  size,  I  suppose  violin  playing  becomes 


Jascha  Heifetz  81 

second  nature  in  the  course  of  time.  I  was  able 
to  find  my  way  about  in  all  seven  positions 
within  a  year's  time,  and  could  pLay  the  Kay- 
ser  etudes;  but  that  does  not  mean  to  say  I 
was  a  virtuoso  by  any  means, 

''^W  first  teacher  ?  3Iy  first  teacher  was  my 
father,  a  good  violinist  and  concertmaster  of 
the  Vilna  Sj-mphony  Orchestra.  3Iy  first  ap- 
pearance in  public  took  place  in  an  over- 
crowded auditorium  of  the  Imperial  ^lusic 
School  in  Vilna.  Russia,  when  I  was  not  quite 
five.  I  played  the  Fantaisie  Pastorale  with 
piano  accompaniment.  Later,  at  the  age  of  six, 
I  played  the  Mendelssohn  concerto  in  Ko^tio 
to  a  full  house.  Stage-fright?  Xo,  I  cannot 
say  I  have  ever  had  it.  Of  course,  something 
may  happen  to  upset  one  before  a  concert, 
and  one  does  not  feel  quite  at  ease  when  first 
stepping  on  the  stage;  but  then  I  hope  that 
is  not  stage-fright  I 

"At  the  Imperial  Music  School  in  Vilna,  and 
before,  I  worked  at  all  the  things  every  violinist 
studies — I  think  that  I  played  almost  every- 
thing. I  did  not  work  too  hard,  but  I  worked 
hard  enough.  In  Vilna  my  teacher  was  Mal- 
kin,  a  pupil  of  Professor  Auer,  and  when  I 
had  graduated  from  the  Vilna  school  I  went  to 
Auer.    Did  I  go  directlv  to  his  classes?  Well, 


82  Violin  Mastery 

no,  but  I  had  only  a  very  short  time  to  wait 
before  I  joined  the  classes  conducted  by  Auer 
personally. 

PROFESSOR  AUER  AS  A  TEACHER 

"Yes,  he  is  a  wonderful  and  an  incompar- 
able teacher ;  I  do  not  believe  there  is  one  in  the 
world  who  can  possibly  approach  him.  Do  not 
ask  me  just  how  he  does  it,  for  I  would  not 
know  how  to  tell  you.  But  he  is  different  with 
each  pupil — perhaps  that  is  one  reason  he  is 
so  great  a  teacher.  I  think  I  was  with  Pro- 
fessor Auer  about  six  years,  and  I  had  both 
class  lessons  and  private  lessons  of  him,  though 
tovv^ard  the  end  my  lessons  were  not  so  regular. 
I  never  played  exercises  or  technical  works  of 
any  kind  for  the  Professor,  but  outside  of 
the  big  things — the  concertos  and  sonatas,  and 
the  shorter  pieces  which  he  would  let  me  pre- 
pare— I  often  chose  what  I  wanted. 

"Professor  Auer  was  a  very  active  and 
energetic  teacher.  He  was  never  satisfied  with 
a  mere  explanation,  unless  certain  it  was  un- 
derstood. He  could  always  show  5^ou  himself 
with  his  bow  and  violin.  The  Professor's  pu- 
pils were  supposed  to  have  been  sufficiently 
advanced  in  the  technic  necessary  for  them  to 


Jascha  Heifetz  83 

profit  by  his  wonderful  lessons  in  interpreta- 
tion. Yet  there  were  all  sorts  of  technical 
finesses  which  he  had  up  his  sleeve,  any  num- 
ber of  fine,  subtle  points  in  playing  as  well  as 
interpretation  which  he  would  disclose  to  his 
pupils.  And  tlie  more  interest  and  ability  the 
pupil  showed,  the  more  the  Professor  gave  him 
of  himself!  He  is  a  very  great  teacher !  Bow- 
ing, the  true  art  of  bowing,  is  one  of  the  great- 
est things  in  Professor  Auer's  teaching.  I 
know  when  I  first  came  to  the  Professor,  he 
showed  me  things  in  bowing  I  had  never 
learned  in  Vilna.  It  is  hard  to  describe  in 
words  (Mr.  Heifetz  illustrated  with  some  of 
those  natural,  unstrained  movements  of  arm 
and  wrist  which  his  concert  appearances  have 
made  so  familiar),  but  bowing  as  Professor 
Auer  teaches  it  is  a  very  special  thing;  the 
movements  of  the  bow  become  more  easy, 
graceful,  less  stiff. 

"In  class  there  were  usually  from  twenty- 
five  to  thirty  pupils.  Aside  from  what  we  each 
gained  individually  from  the  Professor's  criti- 
cism and  correction,  it  was  interesting  to  hear 
the  others  who  played  before  one's  turn  came, 
because  one  could  get  all  kinds  of  hints  from 
what  Professor  Auer  told  them.  I  know  I  al- 
ways  enjoyed  listening  to  Poliakin,   a   very 


84  Violin  Mastery 

talented  violinist,  and  Cecile  Hansen,  who  at- 
tended the  classes  at  the  same  time  I  did.  The 
Professor  was  a  stern  and  very  exacting,  but 
a  sympathetic,  teacher.  If  our  playing  was 
not  just  what  it  should  be  he  alwa5^s  had  a  fund 
of  kindly  humor  upon  which  to  draw.  He 
would  anticipate  our  stock  excuses  and  say: 
'Well,  I  suppose  you  have  just  had  your  bow 
rehaired!'  or  'These  new  strings  are  very  try- 
ing,' or  'It's  the  weather  that  is  against  you 
again,  is  it  not  ?'  or  something  of  the  kind.  Ex- 
aminations were  not  so  easy:  we  had  to  show 
that  we  were  not  only  soloists,  but  also  sight 
readers  of  difficult  music. 

A  DIFFICULTY  OVERCOME 

"The  greatest  technical  difficulty  I  had  when 
I  was  studying?"  Jascha  Heifetz  tried  to 
recollect,  which  was  natural,  seeing  that  it  must 
have  been  one  long  since  overcome.  Then  he 
remembered,  and  smiled:  "Staccato  playing. 
To  get  a  good  staccato,  when  I  first  tried 
seemed  very  hard  to  me.  When  I  was  younger, 
really,  at  one  time  I  had  a  very  poor  staccato!" 
[I  assured  the  young  artist  that  any  one  who 
heard  him  play  here  would  find  it  hard  to  be- 
lieve this.]    "Yes,  I  did,"  he  insisted,  "but  one 


Jascha  Heifetz  85 

morning,  I  do  not  know  just  how  it  was — I 
was  playing  the  cadenza  in  the  first  movement 
of  Wieniawski's  F#  minor  concerto, — it  is  full 
of  staccatos  and  double  stops — the  right  way 
of  playing  staccato  came  to  me  quice  suddenly, 
especially  after  Professor  Auer  had  shown  me 
his  method. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  Mastery?  To  me  it  means  the  abil- 
ity to  make  the  violin  a  perfectly  controlled 
instrument  guided  by  the  skill  and  intelligence 
of  the  artist,  to  compel  it  to  respond  in  move- 
ment to  his  every  wish.  The  artist  must  al- 
ways be  superior  to  his  instrument,  it  must  be 
his  servant,  one  that  he  can  do  with  what  he 
will. 

TECHNICAL   MASTERY  AND   TEMPERAMENT 

"It  appears  to  me  that  mastery  of  the  tech- 
nic  of  the  violin  is  not  so  much  of  a  mechanical 
accomplishment  as  it  is  of  mental  nature.  It 
may  be  that  scientists  can  tell  us  how  through 
persistency  the  brain  succeeds  in  making  the 
fingers  and  the  arms  produce  results  through 
the  infinite  variety  of  inexplicable  vibrations. 
The  sweetness  of  tone,  its  melodiousness,  its 


86  Violin  Mastery 

legatos,  octaves,  trills  and  harmonics  all  bear 
the  mark  of  the  individual  who  uses  his  strings 
like  his  vocal  chords.  When  an  artist  is  work- 
ing over  his  harmonics,  he  must  not  be  im- 
patient and  force  purity,  pitch,  or  the  right 
intonation.  He  must  coax  the  tone,  try  it  again 
and  again,  seek  for  improvements  in  his  finger- 
ing as  well  as  in  his  bowing  at  the  same 
time,  and  sometimes  he  may  be  surprised 
how,  quite  suddenly,  at  the  time  when 
he  least  expects  it,  the  result  has  come. 
More  than  one  road  leads  to  Rome!  The 
fact  is  that  when  you  get  it,  you  have  it, 
that's  all!  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  disclose 
to  the  musical  profession  all  the  secrets  of  the 
mastery  of  violin  technic;  but  are  there  anj'- 
secrets  in  the  sense  that  some  of  the  uninitiated 
take  them?  If  an  artist  happens  to  excel  in 
some  particular,  he  is  at  once  suspected  of 
knowing  some  secret  means  of  so  doing.  How- 
ever, that  maj^  not  be  the  case.  He  does  it 
just  because  it  is  in  him,  and  as  a  rule  he  ac- 
complishes this  through  his  mental  faculties 
more  than  through  his  mechanical  abilities.  I 
do  not  intend  to  minimize  the  value  of  great 
teachers  who  prove  to  be  important  factors  in 
the  life  of  a  musician;  but  think  of  the  vast 
army  of  pupils  that  a  master  teacher  brings 


JascJia  Heifetz  87 

forth,  and  listen  to  the  infinite  variety  of  their 
spiccatos,  octaves,  legatos,  and  trills!  For  the 
successful  masteiy  of  violin  technic  let  each 
artist  study  carefully  his  own  individuality,  let 
him  concentrate  his  mental  energy  on  the 
quality  of  pitch  he  intends  to  produce,  and 
sooner  or  later  he  will  find  his  way  of  express- 
ing himself.  Music  is  not  only  in  the  fingers 
or  in  the  elbow.  It  is  in  that  mysterious  EGO 
of  the  man,  it  is  his  soul ;  and  his  body  is  like 
his  violin,  nothing  but  a  tool.  Of  course,  the 
great  master  must  have  the  tools  that  suit  him 
best,  and  it  is  the  happy  combination  that 
makes  for  success. 

*'By  the  vibrations  and  modulations  of  the 
notes  one  may  recognize  the  violinist  as  easily 
as  we  recognize  the  singer  by  his  voice.  Who 
can  explain  how  the  artist  harmonizes  the 
trilling  of  his  fingers  with  the  emotions  of  his 
soul? 

"An  artist  will  never  become  great  through 
mere  imitation,  and  never  will  he  be  able  to  at- 
tain the  best  results  only  by  methods  adopted 
by  others.  He  must  have  his  own  initiative, 
although  he  will  surely  profit  by  the  experience 
of  others.  Of  course  there  are  standard  ways 
of  approaching  the  study  of  violin  technic;  but 
these  are  too  well  known  to  dwell  upon  them; 


88  Violin  Mastery 

as  to  the  niceties  of  the  art,  they  must  come 
from  within.  You  can  make  a  musician  but 
not  an  artist ! 


REPERTORY  AND  PROGRAMS 

"Which  of  the  master  works  do  I  like  best? 
Well,  that  is  rather  hard  to  answer.  Each 
master  work  has  its  own  beauties.  Naturally 
one  likes  best  what  one  understands  best.  I 
prefer  to  play  the  classics  like  Brahms,  Bee- 
thoven, Mozart,  Bach,  Mendelssohn,  etc.  How- 
ever, I  played  Bruch's  G  minor  in  1913  at  the 
Leipzig  Gewandhouse  with  Nikisch,  where 
I  was  told  that  Joachim  was  the  only  other 
violinist  as  young  as  myself  to  appear  there 
as  soloist  with  orchestra;  there  is  the  Tschai- 
kovsky  concerto  which  I  played  in  Berlin  in 
1912,  with  the  Berlin  Philharmonic  Orchestra 
with  Nikisch.  Alsa  Bruch's  D  minor  and 
many  more.  I  played  the  Mendelssohn  con- 
certo in  1914,  in  Vienna,  with  Safonoff  as  con- 
ductor. Last  season  in  Chicago  I  played  the 
Brahms  concerto  with  a  fine  and  very  elabo- 
rate cadenza  by  Professor  Auer.  I  think  the 
Brahms  concerto  for  violin  is  like  Chopin's 
music  for  piano,  in  a  way,  because  it  stands 
technically  and  musically  for  something  quite 


Jascha  Heifetz  89 

different  and  distinct  from  other  violin  music, 
just  as  Chopin  does  from  other  piano  music. 
The  Brahms  concerto  is  not  technically  as 
hard  as,  say,  Paganini — but  in  interpretation! 
.  .  .  And  in  the  Beethoven  concerto,  too, 
there  is  a  simplicity,  a  kind  of  clear  beauty 
which  makes  it  far  harder  to  play  than  many 
other  things  technically  more  advanced.  The 
slightest  flaw,  the  least  difference  in  pitch,  in 
intonation,  and  its  beauty  suffers. 

"Yes,  there  are  other  Russian  concertos  be- 
sides the  Tschaikovsky.  There  is  the  Glazounov 
concerto  and  others.  I  understand  that  Zim- 
balist  was  the  first  to  introduce  it  in  this  coun- 
try, and  I  expect  to  play  it  here  next  season. 

"Of  course  one  cannot  always  play  concertos, 
and  one  cannot  always  play  Bach  and  Bee- 
thoven. And  that  makes  it  hard  to  select  pro- 
grams. The  artist  can  aWays  enjoy  the  great 
music  of  his  instrument ;  but  an  audience  wants 
variety.  At  the  same  time  an  artist  cannot 
play  only  just  what  the  majority  of  the  audi- 
ence wants.  I  have  been  asked  to  play  Schu- 
bert's Ave  Maria,  or  Beethoven's  Chorus  of 
Dervishes  at  every  one  of  my  concerts,  but  I 
simply  cannot  play  them  all  the  time.  I  am 
afraid  if  program  making  were  left  altogether 
to  audiences  the  programs  would  become  far 


90  Violin  Mastery 

too  popular  in  character ;  though  audiences  are 
just  as  different  as  individuals.  I  try  hard  to 
balance  my  programs,  so  that  every  one  can 
find  something  to  understand  and  enjoy.  I 
expect  to  prepare  some  American  composi- 
tions for  next  season.  Oh,  no,  not  as  a  matter 
of  courtesy,  but  because  they  are  really  fine, 
especially  some  smaller  pieces  by  Spalding, 
Cecil  Burleigh  and  Grasse!" 

On  concluding  our  interview  Mr.  Heifetz 
made  a  remark  which  is  worth  repeating,  and 
which  many  a  music  lover  who  is  plus  royalistc 
que  le  roi  might  do  well  to  remember:  "After 
all,"  he  said,  "much  as  I  love  music,  I  cannot 
help  feeling  that  music  is  not  the  only  thing 
in  life.  I  really  cannot  imagine  anything  more 
terrible  than  always  to  hear,  think  and  make 
music!  There  is  so  much  else  to  know  and  ap- 
preciate; and  I  feel  that  the  more  I  learn  and 
know  of  other  things  the  better  artist  I  will 
be!" 


VIII 

DAVID  HOCHSTEIN 

THE  VIOLIN  AS  A  MEANS  OF  EXPRESSION 
AND  EXPRESSIVE  PLAYING 

The  writer  talked  with  Lieutenant  David 
Hochstein,  whose  death  in  the  battle  of  the  Ar- 
gonne  Forest  was  only  reported  toward  the 
end  of  January,  while  the  distinguished  young 
violinist,  then  only  a  sergeant,  was  on  the  eve 
of  departure  to  France  with  his  regiment  and, 
as  he  modestly  said,  his  "thoughts  on  music 
were  rather  scattered."  Yet  he  spoke  with  keen 
insight  and  authority  on  various  phases  of  his 
art,  and  much  of  what  he  said  gains  point  from 
his  own  splendid  work  as  a  concert  violinist; 
for  Lieutenant  Hochstein  (whose  standing  has 
been  established  in  numerous  European  as 
well  as  American  recitals)  could  play  what  he 
preached. 

SEVCIK  AND  AUER:  A  CONTRAST  IN  TEACHING 

Knowing  that  in  the  regimental  band  he  was, 
quite  appropriately,  a  clarinetist,  "the  clarinet 

01 


92  Violin  Mastery 

in  the  military  band  being  the  equivalent  of  the 
violin  in  the  orchestra" — and  a  scholarship  pu- 
pil of  the  Vienna  Meisterscliule,  it  seemed 
natural  to  ask  him  concerning  his  teachers. 
And  the  interesting  fact  developed  that  he  had 
studied  vi^ith  the  celebrated  Bohemian  pedagog 
Sevcik  and  with  Leopold  Auer  as  well,  two 
teachers  whose  ideas  and  methods  differ  ma- 
terially. "I  studied  with  Sevcik  for  two  years," 
said  the  young  violinist.  "It  was  in  1909, 
when  a  class  of  ten  pupils  was  formed 
for  him  in  the  Meisterscliule,  at  Vienna,  that 
I  went  to  him.  Sevcik  was  in  many  ways  a 
wonderful  teacher,  yet  inclined  to  overempha- 
size the  mechanical  side  of  the  art.  He  literally 
taught  his  pupils  how  to  practice,  how  to  de- 
velop technical  control  by  the  most  slow  and 
painstaking  study.  In  addition  to  his  own  fine 
method  and  exercises,  he  also  used  Gavinies, 
Dont,  Rode,  Kreutzer,  applying  in  their 
studies  ideas  of  his  own. 

"Auer  as  a  teacher  I  found  altogether  dif- 
ferent. Where  Sevcik  taught  his  pupils  the 
technic  of  their  art  by  means  of  a  system 
elaborately  worked  out,  Auer  demonstrated 
his  ideas  through  sheer  personality,  mainly 
from  the  interpretative  point  of  view.  Any 
ambitious  student  could  learn  much  of  value 


David  Hochstein  93 

from  either;  yet  in  a  general  way  one  might 
express  the  difference  between  them  by  saying 
that  Sevcik  could  take  a  pupil  of  medium  talent 
and — at  least  from  the  mechanical  standpoint 
— make  an  excellent  violinist  of  him.  But  Auer 
is  an  ideal  teacher  for  the  greatly  gifted.  And 
he  is  especially  skilled  in  taking  some  student 
of  the  violin  while  his  mind  is  still  plastic  and 
susceptible  and  molding  it — supplying  it 
with  lofty  concepts  of  interpretation  and  ex- 
pression. Of  course  Auer  ( I  studied  with  him 
in  Petrograd  and  Dresden)  has  been  espe- 
cially fortunate  as  regards  his  pupils,  too,  be- 
cause active  in  a  land  like  Russia,  where 
musical  genius  has  almost  become  a  common-^ 
place. 

"Sevcik,  though  an  admirable  teacher,  per- 
sonally is  of  a  reserved  and  reflective  type, 
quite  different  from  Auer,  who  is  open  and 
expansive.  I  might  recall  a  little  instance 
which  shows  Sevcik's  cautious  nature,  the  care 
he  takes  not  to  commit  himself  too  unre- 
servedly. When  I  took  leave  of  him — it  was 
after  I  had  graduated  and  won  my  prize — I 
naturally  (like  all  his  pupils)  asked  him  for 
his  photo.  Several  other  pupils  of  his  were  in 
the  room  at  the  time.     He  took  up  his  pen  (I 


04  Violin  Mastery 

was  looking  over  his  shoulder),  commenced  to 
write  Meinem  best.  .  .  .  And  then  he  stopped, 
glanced  at  the  other  pupils  in  the  room,  and 
wrote  over  the  best  ...  he  had  already  writ- 
ten, the  word  liebsten.  But  though  I  would,  of 
course,  have  preferred  the  first  inscription, 
had  Sevcik  completed  it,  I  can  still  consolej 
myself  that  the  other,  even  though  I  value  it, 
was  an  afterthought.  But  it  was  a  char- 
acteristic thing  for  him  to  do! 

THE  VIOLIN  AS  A  MEANS  OF  EXPRESSION 

"What  is  my  idea  of  the  violin  as  a  medium 
of  expression?  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  that 
of  any  other  valid  artistic  medium.  It  is  not 
so  much  a  question  of  the  violin  as  of  the  vio- 
linist. A  great  interpreter  reveals  his  inner- 
most soul  through  his  instrument,  whatever  it 
may  be.  INIost  people  think  the  violin  is  more 
expressive  than  any  other  instrument,  but  this 
is  open  to  question.  It  may  be  that  most  peo- 
ple respond  more  readily  to  the  appeal  made 
by  the  violin.  But  genuine  expression,  expres- 
sive playing,  depends  on  the  message  the 
player  has  to  deliver  far  more  than  on  the  in- 
strument he  uses  as  a  means.  I  have  been  as 
much  moved  by  some  piano  playing  I  have 


David  Hochstein  95 

heard  as  by  the  violin  playing  of  some  of  the 
greatest  violinists. 

"And  variety,  nuance  in  expressive  playing, 
is  largely  a  matter  of  the  player's  mental  at- 
titude. Bach's  Chaconne  or  Sicilienne  calls  for 
a  certain  humility  on  the  part  of  the  artist .j 
When  I  play  Bach  I  do  it  reverentially;  a 
definite  spiritual  quality  in  my  tone  and  ex- 
pression is  the  result.  And  to  select  a  com- 
poser who  in  many  ways  is  Bach's  exact  op- 
posite, Wieniawski,  a  certain  audacious  bril- 
liancy cannot  help  but  make  itself  felt  tonally, 
if  this  music  is  to  be  played  in  character.  The 
mental  and  spiritual  attitude  directly  influ- 
ences its  own  mechanical  transmission.  No  one 
artist  should  criticize  another  for  differences 
in  interpretation,  in  expression,  so  long  as  they 
are  justified  by  larger  concepts  of  art.  In- 
dividuality is  one  of  the  artist's  most  precious 
possessions,  and  there  are  always  a  number  of 
different  angles  from  which  the  interpreta- 
tion of  an  art  work  may  be  approached. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  mastery?  There  have  been  only 
three  violinists  within  my  own  recollection, 
whom  I  would  call  masters  of  the  violin.  These 


96  Violin  Mastery 

are  Kubelik  (when  at  his  best),  Franz  von 
Vecsey,  Hubay's  pupil,  whom  I  heard  abroad, 
and  Heifetz,  with  his  cameo-hke  perfection 
of  technic.  These  I  would  call  masters  of  the 
violin,  as  an  instrument,  since  they  have  mas- 
tered every  intricacy  of  the  instrument.  But 
I  could  name  several  others  who  are  greater 
musicians,  and  whose  playing  and  interpreta- 
tion, to  say  nothing  of  tone,  I  prefer. 

TONE  production:  rhythm 

"In  one  sense  true  violin  mastery  is  a  ques- 
tion of  tone  production  and  rhythm.  And  I 
believe  that  tone  production  depends  princi- 
pally upon  the  imaginative  ear  of  the  player. 
This  statement  may  seem  somewhat  ambigu- 
ous, and  one  might  ask,  'What  is  an  imagina- 
tive ear?'  My  ear,  for  instance,  demands  of 
my  violin  a  certain  quality  of  tone,  which  varies 
according  to  the  music  I  am  playing.  But  be- 
fore I  think  of  playing  the  music,  I  already 
know  from  reading  it  what  I  want  it  to  sound 
like:  that  is  to  say,  the  quality  of  the  tone  I 
wish  to  secure  in  each  principal  phrase. 
Rhythm  is  perhaps  the  greatest  factor  in  in- 
terpretation. Every  good  musician  has  a  'good 
sense  of  rhythm'  (that  much  abused  phrase). 


David  Hochsio..  97 

But  it  is  only  the  great  musician  wlio  makes 
so  striking  and  individual  an  application  of 
rhythm  that  his  playing  may  be  easily  dis- 
tinguished by  his  use  of  it. 

"There  is  not  much  to  tell  you  as  regards  my 
method  of  work.  I  usually  work  directly  upon 
a  program  which  has  been  previously  mapped 
out.  If  I  have  been  away  from  my  violin  for 
more  than  a  week  or  two  I  begin  by  practicing 
scales,  but  ordinarily  I  find  my  technical  work 
in  the  programs  I  am  preparing." 

Asked  about  his  band  experiences  at  Camp 
Upton,  Sergeant  Hochstein  was  enthusiastic. 
"No  violinist  could  help  but  gain  much  from 
work  with  a  military  band  at  one  of  the 
camps,"  he  said.  "For  instance,  I  had  a  more 
or  less  theoretical  knowledge  of  wind  instru- 
ments before  I  went  to  Camp  Upton.  Now 
I  have  a  practical  working  knowledge  of  them. 
I  have  already  scored  a  little  violin  composi- 
tion of  mine,  a  'Minuet  in  Olden  Style'  for 
full  band,  and  have  found  it  possible  by  the 
right  manipulation  to  preserve  its  original 
dainty  and  graceful  character,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  played  by  more  than  forty  mili- 
tary bandsmen. 

"Then,  too,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "I  have 
organized  a  real  orchestra  of  twenty-one  play- 


98  Violin  M aster ij 

ers,  strings,  brass,  wood-wind,  etc.,  which  I 
hope  is  going  to  be  of  real  use  on  the  other 
side  during  our  training  period  in  France. 
You  see,  'over  there'  the  soldier  boys'  chances 
for  leave  are  limited  and  we  will  have  to  de- 
pend a  good  deal  on  our  own  selves  for  amuse- 
ment and  recreation.  I  hope  and  believe  my 
orchestra  is  not  only  going  to  take  its  place  as 
one  of  the  most  enjoyable  features  of  our  army 
life ;  but  also  that  it  will  make  propaganda  of 
the  right  sort  for  the  best  music  in  a  broad, 
catholic  sense  of  the  word!" 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  this  patriotic 
young  officer  found  opportunities  in  camp  and 
in  the  towns  of  France  of  carrying  out  his  wish 
to  "make  propaganda  of  the  right  sort  for  the 
best  music"  before  he  gave  his  life  to  further 
the  greater  purpose  which  had  called  him  over- 
seas. 


IX 
FRITZ  KREISLER 

PERSONALITY  IN  ART 

The  influence  of  the  artist's  personality  in 
his  art  finds  a  most  striking  exemplification  in 
the  case  of  Fritz  Kreisler.  Some  time  before 
the  writer  called  on  the  famous  violinist 
to  get  at  first  hand  some  of  his  opinions 
with  regard  to  his  art,  he  had  already 
met  him  under  particularly  interesting  cir- 
cumstances. The  question  had  come  up  of 
writing  text-poems  for  two  song-adaptations 
of  Viennese  folk-themes,  airs  not  unattractive 
in  themselves;  but  which  Kreisler's  personal 
touch,  his  individual  gift  of  harmonization  had 
lifted  from  a  lower  plane  to  the  level  of  the 
art  song.  Together  with  the  mss.  of  his  own 
beautiful  transcript,  Mr.  Kreisler  in  the  one 
instance  had  given  me  the  printed  original 
which  suggested  it — frankly  a  "popular"  song, 
clumsily  harmonized  in  a  "four-square"  man- 
ner (though  written  in  3/4  time)  with  nothing 

99 


100  Violin  Mastery 

to  indicate  its  latent  possibilities.  I  compared  it 
with  his  mss.  and,  lo,  it  had  been  transformed  I 
Gone  was  the  clmnsiness,  the  vulgar  and  ob- 
vious harmonic  treatment  of  the  melody — 
Kreisler  had  kept  the  melodic  dutline,  but 
etherealized,  spiritualized  it,  given  it  new 
rhythmic  contours,  a  deeper  and  more  expres- 
sive meaning.  And  his  rich  and  subtle  har- 
monization had  lent  it  a  quality  of  distinction 
that  justified  a  comparison  between  the  grub 
and  the  butterfly.  In  a  small  way  it  was  an 
illuminating  glimpse  of  how  the  personality  of 
a  true  artist  can  metamorphose  what  at  first 
glance  might  seem  something  quite  negligible, 
and  create  beauty  where  its  possibilities  alone 
had  existed  before. 

It  is  this  personal,  this  individual,  note  in 
all  that  Fritz  Kreisler  does — when  he  plays, 
when  he  composes,  when  he  transcribes — that 
gives  his  art-effort  so  great  and  unique  a 
quality  of  appeal. 

Talking  to  him  in  his  comfortable  sitting- 
room  in  the  Hotel  Wellington — Homer  and^ 
Juvenal  ( in  the  original )  ranked  on  the  piano- 
top  beside  De  Vere  Stackpole  novels  and  other 
contemporary  literature  called  to  mind  that 
though  Brahms  and  Beethoven  violin  concertos 
are  among  his  favorites,  he  does  not  disdain  to 


Fritz  Kreisler 


Fritz  Kreisler  101 

play  a  Granados  Spanish  Dance — it  seemed 
natural  to  ask  him  how  he  came  to  make  those 
adaptations  and  transcripts  which  have  been  so 
notable  a  feature  of  his  programs,  and  which 
have  given  such  pleasure  to  thousands. 

HOW  KREISLER  CAME  TO  COMPOSE  AND  ARRANGE 

He  said:  "I  began  to  compose  and  arrange 
as  a  young  man.  I  wanted  to  create  a  reper- 
tory for  myself,  to  be  able  to  express  through 
my  medium,  the  violin,  a  great  deal  of  beautiful 
music  that  had  first  to  be  adapted  for  the  in- 
strument. What  I  composed  and  arranged 
was  for  my  own  use,  reflected  my  own  musical 
tastes  and  preferences.  In  fact,  it  was  not 
till  years  after  that  I  even  thought  of  publish- 
ing the  pieces  I  had  composed  and  arranged. 
For  I  was  very  diffident  as  to  the  outcome  of 
such  a  step.  I  have  never  written  anything 
with  the  commercial  idea  of  making  it  'play- 
able.' And  I  have  always  felt  that  anything 
done  in  a  cold-blooded  way  for  purely  mer- 
cenary considerations  somehow  cannot  be  good. 
It  cannot  represent  an  artist's  best.'* 


102  Violin  Mastery 


AT  THE  VIENNA  CONSERVATORY 

In  reply  to  another  query  Mr.  Kreisler  re- 
verted to  the  days  when  as  a  boy  he  studied  at 
the  Vienna  Conservatory.  "I  was  only  seven 
when  I  attended  the  Conservatory  and  was 
much  more  interested  in  playing  in  the  park, 
where  my  boy  friends  would  be  waiting  for 
me,  than  in  taking  lessons  on  the  violin.  And 
yet  some  of  the  most  lasting  musical  impres- 
sions of  my  life  were  gathered  there.  Not  so 
much  as  regards  study  itself,  as  with  respect  to 
the  good  music  I  heard.  Some  very  great 
men  played  at  the  Conservatory  when  I  was 
a  pupil.  There  were  Joachim,  Sarasate  in 
his  prime,  Hellmesberger,  and  Rubinstein, 
whom  I  heard  play  the  first  time  he  came  to 
Vienna.  I  really  believe  that  hearing  Joachim 
and  Rubinstein  play  was  a  greater  event  in  my 
life  and  did  more  for  me  than  five  years  of 
study!" 

"Of  course  you  do  not  regard  technic  as 
the  main  essential  of  the  concert  violinist's 
equipment?"  I  asked  him.  "Decidedly  not. 
Sincerity  and  personality  are  the  first  main  es- 
sentials. Technical  equipment  is  something 
which  should  be  taken  for  granted.    The  vir- 


Fritz  Kreisler  103 

tuoso  of  the  type  of  Ole  Bull,  let  us  say,  has 
disappeared.  The  'stunt'  ^jlayer  of  a  former 
day  with  a  repertory  of  three  or  four  bravura 
pieces  was  not  far  above  the  average  music- 
hall  'artist.'  The  modern  virtuoso,  the  true 
concert  artist,  is  not  worthy  of  the  title  unless 
his  art  is  the  outcome  of  a  completely  uni- 
fied nature. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"I  do  not  believe  that  any  artist  is  truly  a 
master  of  his  instrument  unless  his  control  of 
it  is  an  integral  part  of  a  whole.  The  musician 
is  born — his  medium  of  expression  is  often  a 
matter  of  accident.  I  believe  one  may  be  in- 
tended for  an  artist  prenatally;  but  whether 
violinist,  'cellist  or  pianist  is  partly  a  matter 
of  circumstance.  Violin  mastery,  to  my  mind, 
still  falls  short  of  perfection,  in  spite  of  the 
completest  technical  and  musical  equipment, 
if  the  artist  thinks  only  of  the  instrument  he 
plays.  After  all,  it  is  just  a  single  medium  of 
expression.  The  true  musician  is  an  artist  with 
a  special  instrument.  And  every  real  artist 
has  the  feeling  for  other  forms  and  mediums 
of  expression  if  he  is  truly  a  master  of  his  own. 


104  Violin  Mastery 


TECHNIC  VERSUS  IMAGINATION 

"I  think  the  technical  element  in  the  artist's 
education  is  often  unduly  stressed.  Remem- 
ber," added  Mr.  Kreisler,  with  a  smile,  "I  am 
not  a  teacher,  and  this  is  a  purely  personalj 
opinion  I  am  giving  you.  But  it  seems  to  me 
that  absolute  sincerity  of  effort,  actual  impos- 
sibility 7wt  to  react  to  a  genuine  musical  im- 
pulse are  of  great  importance.  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  if  one  is  destined  to  become  an  artist 
the  technical  means  find  themselves.  The  ne- 
cessity of  expression  will  follow  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  Too  great  a  manual  equip- 
ment often  leads  to  an  exaggeration  of  the 
technical  and  tempts  the  artist  to  stress  it  un- 
duly. 

"I  have  worked  a  great  deal  in  my  life,  but 
have  always  found  that  too  large  an  amount  of 
purely  technico-musical  work  fatigued  me  and 
reacted  unfavorably  on  my  imagination.  As  a 
rule  I  only  practice  enough  to  keep  my  fingers 
in  trim;  the  nervous  strain  is  such  that  doing 
more  is  out  of  the  question.  And  for  a  con- 
cert-violinist when  on  tour,  pla5ang  every  day, 
the  technical  question  is  not  absorbing.  Far 
more  important  is  it  for  him  to  keep  himself 


Fritz  Kreisler  105 

mentally  and  phj^sically  fresh  and  in  the  right 
mood  for  his  work.  For  myself  I  have  to  en- 
joy whatever  I  play  or  I  cannot  play  it.  And 
it  has  often  done  me  more  good  to  dip  my 
finger-tips  in  hot  water  for  a  few  seconds  be- 
fore stepping  out  on  the  platform  than  to 
spend  a  couple  of  hours  practicing.  But  I 
should  not  wish  the  student  to  draw  any  de- 
ductions from  what  I  saj'^  on  this  head.  It  is 
purely  personal  and  has  no  general  applica- 
tion. 

"Technical  exercises  I  use  very  moderately. 
I  wish  my  imagination  to  be  responsive,  my  in- 
terest fresh,  and  as  a  rule  I  have  found  that 
too  much  work  along  routine  channels  does  not 
accord  with  the  best  development  of  my  Art. 
I  feel  that  technic  should  be  in  the  plaj^er's 
head,  it  should  be  a  mental  picture,  a  sort  of 
'master  record.'  It  should  be  a  matter  of  will 
power  to  which  the  manual  possibilities  should 
be  subjected.  Technic  to  me  is  a  mental  and 
not  a  manual  thing. 

MENTAL  technic:  ITS  DRAWBACK  AND  ITS  AD- 
VANTAGE 

"The  technic  thus  achieved,  a  technic  whose 
controlling  power  is  chiefly  mental,  is  not  per- 


106  Violin  Mastery 

feet — I  say  so  frankly — because  it  is  more  or 
less  dependent  on  the  state  of  the  artist's 
nervous  system.  Yet  it  is  the  one  and  only 
kind  of  technic  that  can  adequately  and  com- 
pletely express  the  musician's  every  instinct, 
wish  and  emotion.  Every  other  form  of  tech- 
nic is  stiff,  unpliable,  since  it  cannot  entirely 
subordinate  itself  to  the  individuahty  of  the 
artist." 


PRACTICE  HOURS  FOR  THE  ADVANCED  STUDENT 

Mr.  Kreisler  gives  no  lessons  and  hence  re- 
ferred this  question  in  the  most  amiable  man- 
ner to  his  boyhood  friend  and  fellow-student 
Felix  Winternitz,  the  well-known  Boston  vio- 
lin teacher,  one  of  the  faculty  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Conservatory  of  Music,  who  had  come  in 
while  we  were  talking.  Mr.  Winternitz  did 
not  refuse  an  answer:  "The  serious  student, 
in  my  opinion,  should  not  practice  less  than 
four  hours  a  day,  nor  need  he  practice  more 
than  five.  Other  teachers  may  demand  more. 
Sevcik,  I  know,  insists  that  his  pupils  practice 
eight  and  ten  hours  a  day.  To  do  so  one  must 
have  the  constitution  of  an  ox,  and  the  results 
are  often  not  equal  to  those  produced  by  four 
hours  of  concentrated  work.    As  Mr.  Kreis- 


Fritz  Kreisler  107 

ler  intimated  with  regard  to  technic,  practice 
calls  for  brain  power.  Concentration  in  it- 
self is  not  enough.  There  is  only  one  way  to 
work  and  if  the  pupil  can  find  it  he  can  cover 
the  labor  of  weeks  in  an  hour." 

And  turning  to  me,  Mr.  Winternitz  added : 
*'You  must  not  take  Mr.  Kreisler  too  seriously 
when  he  lays  no  stress  on  his  own  practicing. 
During  the  concert  season  he  has  his  violin  in 
hand  for  an  hour  or  so  nearly  every  day.  He 
does  not  call  it  practicing,  and  j'^ou  and  I  would 
consider  it  playing  and  great  playing  at  that. 
But  it  is  a  genuine  illustration  of  what  I  meant 
when  I  said  that  one  who  knew  how  could  cover 
the  work  of  weeks  in  an  hour's  time." 

AN   EXPLANATION   BY   MR.    WINTERNITZ 

I  tried  to  draw  from  the  famous  violinist 
some  hint  as  to  the  secret  of  the  abiding  popu- 
larity of  his  own  compositions  and  transcripts 
but — as  those  who  know  him  are  aware — Kreis- 
ler has  all  the  modesty  of  the  truly  great.  He 
merely  smiled  and  said:  "Frankly,  I  don't 
know."  But  Mr.  Winternitz'  comment 
(when  a  'phone  call  had  taken  Kreisler  from 
the  room  for  a  moment)  was,  "It  is  the  touch 
given   by  his   accompaniments   that   adds   so 


108  Violin  Mastery 

much:  a  harmonic  treatment  so  rich  in  design 
and  coloring,  and  so  varied  that  melodies  were 
never  more  beautifully  set  off."  Mr.  Kreisler, 
as  he  came  in  again,  remarked:  "I  don't  mind 
telling  you  that  I  enjoyed  very  much  writing 
my  Tamhourin  Chinois.*  The  idea  for  it 
came  to  me  after  a  visit  to  the  Chinese  thea- 
ter in  San  Francisco — not  that  the  music  there 
suggested  any  theme,  but  it  gave  me  the  im- 
pulse to  write  a  free  fantasy  in  the  Chinese 
manner." 


STYLE,  INTERPRETATION  AND  THE  ARTISTIC 
IDEAL 

The  question  of  style  now  came  up.  *'I  am 
not  in  favor  of  'labeling'  the  concert  artist,  of 
calling  him  a  'lyric'  or  a  'dramatic'  or  some 
other  kind  of  a  player.  If  he  is  an  artist  in 
the  real  sense  he  controls  all  styles."  Then, 
in  answer  to  another  question:  "Nothing 
can  express  music  but  music  itself.  Tradition 
in  interpretation  does  not  mean  a  cut-and- 

*  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Nikolai  SokoIofF,  conductor 
of  the  San  Francisco  Philharmonic,  returning  from  a  tour  of 
the  American  and  French  army  camps  in  France,  some  time 
ago,  said:  "My  most  popular  number  was  Kreisler's  Tambonnn 
Chinois.  Invariably  I  had  to  repeat  that."  A  strong  indorse- 
ment of  the  internationalism  of  Art  by  the  actual  fighter  in  the 
trenches. 


Fritz  Kreisler  109 

dried  set  of  rules  handed  down ;  it  is,  or  should 
be,  a  matter  of  individual  sentiment,  of  inner 
conviction.  What  makes  one  man  an  artist 
and  keeps  another  an  amateur  is  a  God-given 
instinct  for  the  artistically  and  musically  right. 
It  is  not  a  thing  to  be  explained,  but  to  be  felt. 
There  is  often  only  a  narrow  line  of  demarca- 
tion between  the  artistically  right  and  wrong. 
Yet  nearly  every  real  artist  will  be  found  to 
agree  as  to  when  and  when  not  that  boundary 
has  been  overstepped.  Sincerity  and  person- 
ality as  well  as  disinterestedness,  an  expression 
of  himself  in  his  art  that  is  absolutely  honest, 
these,  I  believe,  are  ideals  which  every  artist 
should  cherish  and  try  to  realize.  I  believe, 
furthermore,  that  these  ideals  will  come  more 
and  more  into  their  own;  that  after  the  war 
there  will  be  a  great  uplift,  and  that  Art  will 
realize  to  the  full  its  value  as  a  humanizing 
factor  in  life."  And  as  is  well  known,  no  great 
artist  of  our  day  has  done  more  toward  the 
actual  realization  of  these  ideals  he  cherishes 
than  Fritz  Kreisler  himself. 


X 
FRANZ  KNEISEL 

THE  PERFECT  STRING  ENSEMBLE 

Is  there  a  lover  of  chamber  music  unfamiliar 
with  Franz  Kneisel's  name?  It  may  be 
doubted.  After  earlier  European  triumphs 
the  gifted  Roumanian  violinist  came  to  this 
country  (1885),  and  aside  from  his  activities 
in  other  directions — as  a  solo  artist  he  was  the 
first  to  play  the  Brahms  and  Goldmark  violin 
concertos,  and  the  Cesar  Franck  sonata  in  this 
country — organized  his  famous  quartet.  And, 
until  his  recent  retirement  as  its  director  and 
first  violin,  it  has  been  perhaps  the  greatest 
single  influence  toward  stimulating  apprecia- 
tion for  the  best  in  chamber  music  that  the 
country  has  known.  Before  the  Flonzaley 
was,  the  Kneisels  were.  They  made  plain  how 
much  of  beauty  the  chamber  music  repertory 
offered  the  amateur  string  player;  not  only  in 
the  classic  repertory — Haydn,  Mozart,  Bee- 
thoven,    Spohr;     in     Schubert,     Schumann, 

110 


Fbanz  Knkisgl 


Franz  Kneisel  111 

Brahms;  but  in  Smetana,  Dvorak  and  Tschai- 
kovsky;  in  Cesar  Franck,  Debussy  and  Ravel. 
Not  the  least  among  Kneisel's  achievements  is, 
that  while  the  professional  musicians  in  the 
cities  in  which  his  organization  played  attended 
its  concerts  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  average 
music  lover  who  played  a  string  instrument 
came  to  them  as  well,  and  carried  away  with 
him  a  message  delivered  with  all  the  authority 
of  superb  musicianship  and  sincerity,  one 
which  bade  him  "go  and  do  likewise,"  in  so 
far  as  his  limitations  permitted.  And  the 
many  excellent  professional  chamber  music  or- 
ganizations, trios,  quartets  and  ensembles  of 
various  kinds  which  have  come  to  the  fore  since 
they  began  to  play  offer  eloquent  testimony 
with  regard  to  the  cultural  work  of  Kneisel 
and  his  fellow  artists. 

A  cheery  grate  fire  burned  in  the  comfort- 
able study  in  Franz  Kneisel's  home;  the  auto- 
graphed— in  what  affectionate  and  apprecia- 
tive terms — pictures  of  great  fellow  artists 
looked  down  above  the  book-cases  which  hold 
the  scores  of  those  masters  of  what  has  been 
called  "the  noblest  medium  of  music  in  exist- 
ence," whose  beauties  the  famous  quartet  has 
so  often  disclosed  on  the  concert  stage.  And 
Mr.  Kneisel  was  amiability  personified  when 


112  Violin  Mastery 

I  asked  him  to  give  me  his  theorj'^  of  the  per- 
fect string  ensemble,  and  the  part  virtuosity 
played  in  it. 

"the  artist  ranks  the  virtuoso  in  cham- 
ber music" 

"The  artist,  the  Tonkiinstler,  to  use  a  for- 
eign phrase,  ranks  the  virtuoso  in  chamber  mu- 
sic. Joachim  vi^as  no  virtuoso,  he  did  not  stress 
technic,  the  less  important  factor  in  ensemble 
playing.  Sarasate  was  a  virtuoso  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word;  and  yet  as  an  ensemble 
music  player  he  fell  far  short  of  Joachim.  As 
I  see  it  Virtuoso'  is  a  kind  of  flattering  title, 
no  more.  But  a  Tonkiinstler,  a  'tone-artist,' 
though  he  must  have  the  virtuoso  technic  in  or- 
der to  play  Brahms  and  Beethoven  concertos, 
needs  besides  a  spiritual  insight,  a  deep  concept 
of  their  nobility  to  do  them  justice — the  mere 
technic  demanded  for  a  virtuoso  show  piece  is 
not  enough. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY  IN  THE  STRING  QUARTET 

"You  ask  me  what  'Violin  Mastery'  means 
in  the  string  quartet.  It  has  an  altogether 
different  meaning  to  me,  I  imagine,  than  to  the 


Franz  Kneisel  113 

violin  virtuoso.  Violin  mastery  in  the  string 
ensemble  is  as  much  mastery  of  self  as  of  tech- 
nical means.  The  artist  must  sink  his  identity 
completelj^  in  that  of  the  work  he  plays,  and 
though  the  last  Beethoven  quartets  are  as  dif- 
ficult as  many  violin  concertos,  they  are  poly- 
phony, the  combination  and  interweaving  of 
individual  melodies,  and  they  call  for  a  mas- 
tery of  repression  as  well  as  expression.  I 
realized  how  keenly  alive  the  musical  listener 
is  to  this  fact  once  when  our  quartet  had  played 
in  Alma-Tadema's  beautiful  London  home,  for 
the  great  English  painter  was  also  a  music- 
lover  and  a  very  discriminating  one.  He  had 
a  fine  piano  in  a  beautifully  decorated  case, 
and  it  was  an  open  secret  that  at  his  musical 
evenings,  after  an  artist  had  played,  the  lid 
of  the  piano  was  raised,  and  Sir  Lawrence 
asked  him  to  pencil  his  autogi'aph  on  the  soft 
white  wood  of  its  inner  surface — hut  only  if  he 
thought  the  compliment  deserved.  There  were 
some  famous  names  written  there — Joachim, 
Sarasate,  Paderewski,  Neruda,  Piatti,  to  men- 
tion a  few.  Naturally  an  artist  playing  at 
Alma-Tadema's  home  for  the  first  time  could 
not  help  speculating  as  to  his  chances.  Many 
were  called,  but  comparatively  few  were 
chosen.     We  were  guests  at  a  dinner  given  by 


114  Violin  Mastery 

Sir  Lawrence.  There  were  some  fifty  people 
prominent  in  London's  artistic,  musical  and 
social  world  present,  and  we  had  no  idea  of  be- 
ing asked  to  play.  Our  instruments  were  at 
our  hotel  and  we  had  to  send  for  them.  We 
played  the  Schubert  quartet  in  A  minor  and 
Dvorak's  'American'  quartet  and,  of  course, 
my  colleagues  and  myself  forgot  all  about  the 
piano  lid  the  moment  we  began  to  play.  Yet, 
I'm  free  to  confess,  that  when  the  piano  lid 
was  raised  for  us  we  appreciated  it,  for  it  was 
no  empty  compliment  coming  from  Sir  Law- 
rence, and  I  have  been  told  that  some  very 
distinguished  artists  have  not  had  it  extended 
to  them.  And  I  know  that  on  that  evening 
the  phrase  'Violin  Mastery'  in  an  ensemble 
sense,  as  the  outcome  of  ceaseless  striving  for 
coordination  in  expression,  absolute  balance, 
and  all  the  details  that  go  to  make  up  the  per- 
fect ensemble  J  seemed  to  us  to  have  a  very  defi- 
nite color  and  meaning. 

THE  FIRST  VIOLIN  IN  THE  STRING  QUARTET 

"What  exactly  does  the  first  violin  repre- 
sent?" Mr.  Kneisel  went  on  in  answer  to  an- 
other question.  "The  first  violin  might  be 
called  the  chairman  of  the  string  meeting.    His 


Franz  Kneisel  115 

is  the  leading  voice.  Not  that  he  should  be  an 
autocrat,  no,  but  he  must  hold  the  reins  of 
discipline.  Many  think  that  the  four  string 
players  in  a  quartet  have  equal  rights.  First 
of  all,  and  above  all,  are  the  rights  of  the  com- 
poser, Bach,  Beethoven,  Brahms,  Schubert, — 
as  the  case  may  be.  But  from  the  standpoint 
of  interpretation  the  first  violin  has  some  sev- 
enty per  cent,  of  the  responsibility  as  com- 
pared with  thirty  per  cent,  for  the  remaining 
voices.  In  all  the  famous  quartet  organiza- 
tions, Joachim,  Hellmesberger,  etc.,  the  first 
violin  has  been  the  directing  instrimient  and 
has  set  the  pace.  As  chairman  it  has  been  his 
duty  to  say  when  second  violin,  viola  and  'cello 
were  entitled  to  hold  the  fioor.  Hellmesber- 
ger, in  fact,  considered  himself  the  whole  quar- 
tet." Mr.  Kneisel  smiled  and  showed  me  a 
little  book  of  Hellmesberger's  Vienna  pro- 
grams.    Each  program  was  headed : 

HELLMESBERGER  QUARTET 

with  the  assistance  of 

MESSRS.  MATH.  DURST,  CARL  HEISSLER, 
CARL  SCHLESINGER 

"In  other  words,   Hellmesberger   was  the 
quartet  himself,  the  other  three  artists  merely 


116  Violin  Mastery 

'assisted,'  which,  after  all,  is  going  too  far! 
*'Of  course,  quartets  differ.  Just  as  we  have 
operas  in  which  the  alto  solo  role  is  the  most 
important,  so  we  have  quartets  in  which  the 
'cello  or  the  viola  has  a  more  significant  part. 
Mozart  dedicated  quartets  to  a  King  of 
Prussia,  who  played  'cello,  and  he  was  careful 
to  make  the  'cello  part  the  most  important. 
And  in  Smetana's  quartet  Aus  meinem  Leben, 
tKe  viola  plays  a  most  important  role.  Even 
the  second  violin  often  plays  themes  introduc- 
ing principal  themes  of  the  first  violin,  and  it 
has  its  brief  moments  of  prominence.  Yet, 
though  the  second  violin  or  the  'cellist  may  be, 
comparatively  speaking,  a  better  player  than 
the  first  violin,  the  latter  is  and  must  be  the 
leader.  Practically  every  composer  of  cham- 
ber music  recognizes  the  fact  in  his  composi- 
tions. He,  the  first  violin,  should  not  com- 
mand three  slaves,  though ;  but  guide  three  as- 
sociates, and  do  it  tactfully  with  regard  to  their 
individuality  and  that  of  their  instruments. 

"ensemble"  rehearsing 

"You  ask  what  are  the  essentials  of  ensem- 
ble practice  on  the  part  of  the  artists?  Real 
reverence,  untiring  zeal  and  punctuality  at  re- 


Franz  Kneisel  117 

hearsals.  And  then,  an  absolute  sense  of 
rhythm.  I  remember  rehearsing  a  Volkmann 
quartet  once  with  a  new  second  violinist." 
[Mr.  Kneisel  crossed  over  to  his  bookcase  and 
brought  me  the  score  to  illustrate  the  rhythmic 
point  in  question,  one  slight  in  itself  yet  as  dif- 
ficult, perhaps,  for  a  player  without  an  abso- 
lute sense  of  rhj-thm  as  "perfect  intonation" 
would  be  for  some  others.]  "He  had  a  lovely 
tone,  a  big  technic  and  was  a  prize  pupil  of 
the  Vienna  Conservatory.  We  went  over  this 
two  measure  phrase  some  sixteen  times,  until 
I  felt  sure  he  had  grasped  the  proper  accentua- 
tion. And  he  was  most  amiable  and  willing 
about  it,  too.  But  when  we  broke  up  he 
pointed  to  the  passage  and  said  to  me  with  a 
smile :  'After  all,  whether  you  play  it  this  way, 
or  that  way,  what's  the  difference?'  Then  I 
realized  that  he  had  stressed  his  notes  cor- 
rectly a  few  times  by  chance,  and  that  his  own 
sense  of  rhythm  did  not  tell  him  that  there 
were  no  two  ways  about  it.  The  rhythmic  and 
tonal  nuances  in  a  quartet  cannot  be  marked 
too  perfectly  in  order  to  secure  a  beautiful  and 
finished  performance.  And  such  a  violinist  as 
the  one  mentioned,  in  spite  of  his  tone  and  tech- 
nic, was  never  meant  for  an  ensemble  player. 
"I  have  never  believed  in  a  quartet  getting 


118  Violin  Mastery 

together  and  'reading'  a  new  work  as  a  prep- 
aration for  study.  As  first  violin  I  have  al- 
ways made  it  my  business  to  first  study  the 
work  in  score,  myself,  to  study  it  until  I  knew 
the  whole  composition  absolutely,  until  I  had 
a  mental  picture  of  its  meaning,  and  of  the  in- 
terrelation of  its  four  voices  in  detail.  Thirty- 
two  years  of  experience  have  justified  my  the- 
ory. Once  the  first  violin  knows  the  work  the 
practicing  may  begin;  for  he  is  in  a  position 
gradually  and  tactfully  to  guide  the  working- 
out  of  the  interpretation  without  losing  time 
in  the  struggle  to  correct  faults  in  balance 
which  are  developed  in  an  unprepared  'read- 
ing' of  the  work.  There  is  always  one  impor- 
tant melody,  and  it  is  easier  to  find  it  studying 
the  score,  to  trace  it  with  eye  and  mind  in  its 
contrapuntal  web,  than  by  making  voyages  of 
discovery  in  actual  playing. 

"Every  player  has  his  own  qualities,  every 
instrument  its  oAvn  advantages.  Certain  pas- 
sages in  a  second  violin  or  viola  part  may  be 
technically  better  suited  to  the  hand  of  the 
plaj^er,  to  the  nature  of  the  instrument,  and — 
they  will  sound  better  than  others.  Yet  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  composition  the  passages 
that  'lie  well'  are  often  not  the  more  impor- 
tant.   This  is  hard  for  tlie  player — what  is  easy 


Franz  Kneisel  119 

for  him  he  unconsciously  is  inclined  to  stress, 
and  he  must  be  on  his  guard  against  it.  This 
is  another  strong  argument  in  favor  of  a  thor- 
ough preliminary  study  on  the  part  of  the  lead- 
ing violin  of  the  construction  of  the  work." 

THE  FIRST  VIOLIN   IN   CHAMBER  MUSIC  VERSUS 
THE  ORCHESTRA   CONDUCTOR 

The  comparison  which  I  asked  Mr.  Kneisel 
to  make  is  one  which  he  could  establish  with 
authority.  Aside  from  his  experience  as  di- 
rector of  his  quartet,  he  has  been  the  concert- 
meister  of  such  famous  foreign  orchestras  as 
Bilse's  and  that  of  the  Hofhurg  Theater  in 
Vienna  and,  for  eighteen  years,  of  the  Boston 
Symphony  Orchestra  in  this  country.  He  has 
also  conducted  over  one  hundred  concerts  of 
the  Boston  Symphony,  and  was  director  of  the 
Worcester  Music  Festivals. 

"Nikisch  once  said  to  me,  after  he  had  heard 
us  play  the  Schumann  A  minor  quartet  in  Bos- 
ton: 'Kneisel,  it  was  beautiful,  and  I  felt  that 
you  had  more  difficulty  in  developing  it  than  I 
have  with  an  orchestral  score."  And  I  think 
he  was  right.  First  of  all  the  symphonic  con- 
ductor is  an  autocrat.  There  is  no  appeal 
from  the  commands  of  his  baton.     But  the 


120  Violin  Mastery 

first  violin  of  a  quartet  is,  in  a  sense,  only  the 
'first  among  peers.'  The  velvet  glove  is  an 
absolute  necessity  in  his  case.  He  must  gain 
his  art  ends  by  diplomacy  and  tact,  he  must 
always  remember  that  his  fellow  artists  are 
solo  players.  If  he  is  arbitrary,  no  matter  how 
right  he  may  be,  he  disturbs  that  fine  feeling 
of  artistic  fellowship,  that  delicate  balance  of 
individual  temperaments  harmonized  for  and 
by  a  single  purpose.  In  this  connection  I  do 
not  mind  confessing  that  though  I  enjoy  a 
good  game  of  cards,  I  made  it  a  rule  never  to 
play  cards  with  my  colleagues  during  the  hours 
of  railroad  traveling  involved  in  keeping  our 
concert  engagements.  I  played  chess.  In 
chess  the  element  of  luck  does  not  enter.  Each 
player  is  responsible  for  what  he  does  or  leaves 
undone.  And  defeat  leaves  no  such  sting  as 
it  does  when  all  may  be  blamed  on  chance.  In 
an  ensemble  that  strives  for  perfection  there 
must  be  no  undercurrents  of  regret,  of  dissat- 
isfaction— nothing  that  interferes  with  the 
sympathy  and  good  will  which  makes  each  in- 
dividual artist  do  his  best.  And  so  I  have 
never  regretted  giving  cards  the  go-by!" 


Franz  Kneisel  121 


HINTS   TO   THE   SERIOUS   VIOLIN    STUDENT 

Of  late  years  Mr.  Kneisel's  activity  as  a 
teacher  has  added  to  his  reputation.  Few 
teachers  can  point  to  a  galaxy  of  artist  pupils 
which  includes  such  names  as  Samuel  Gard- 
ner, Sascha  Jacobsen,  Breskin,  Helen  Jeffry 
and  Olive  Meade  (who  perpetuates  the  ideals 
of  his  great  string  ensemble  in  her  own  quar- 
tet). "AVhat  is  the  secret  of  your  method?" 
I  asked  him  first  of  all.  "Method  is  hardly 
the  word,"  he  told  me.  "It  sounds  too  cut- 
and-dried.  I  teach  according  to  principles, 
which  must,  of  course,  vary  in  individual  cases ; 
yet  whose  foundation  is  fixed.  And  like  Joa- 
chim, or  Leschetiszky,  I  have  preparatory 
teachers. 

THE  GENERAL  FAULT 

"My  experience  has  shown  me  that  the  fun- 
damental fault  of  most  pupils  is  that  they  do 
not  know  how  to  hold  either  the  bow  or  the 
violin.  Here  in  America  the  violin  student 
as  a  rule  begins  serious  technical  study  too 
late,  contrary  to  the  European  practice.  It  is 
a  great  handicap  to  begin  really  serious  work 
at  seventeen  or  eighteen,  when  the   flexible 


122  Violin  Master^/ 

bones  of  childhood  have  hardened,  and  have  not 
the  phabihty  needed  for  vioHn  gymnastics.  It 
is  a  case  of  not  bending  the  twig  as  you  want 
the  tree  to  grow  in  time.  And  those  who 
study  professionally  are  often  more  interested 
in  making  money  as  soon  as  possible  than  in 
bending  all  their  energies  on  reaching  the 
higher  levels  of  their  art.  Many  a  promising 
talent  never  develops  because  its  possessor  at 
seventeen  or  eighteen  is  eager  to  earn  money 
as  an  orchestra  or  'job'  player,  instead  of  sac- 
rificing a  few  years  more  and  becoming  a  true 
artist.  I've  seen  it  happen  time  and  again:  a 
young  fellow  really  endowed  who  thinks  he  can 
play  for  a  living  and  find  time  to  study  and 
practice  'after  hours.'     And  he  never  does! 

"But  to  return  to  the  general  fault  of  the 
violin  student.  There  is  a  certain  angle  at 
which  the  bow  should  cross  the  strings  in  order 
to  produce  those  vibrations  which  give  the 
roundest,  fullest,  most  perfect  tone  [he  took 
his  own  beautiful  instrument  out  of  its  case  to 
illustrate  the  point],  and  the  violin  must  be  so 
held  that  the  bow  moves  straight  across  the 
strings  in  this  manner.  A  deviation  from  the 
correct  attack  produces  a  scratchy  tone.  And 
it  is  just  in  the  one  fundamental  thing:  the 
holding  of  the  violin  in  exactly  the  same  posi- 


Franz  Kneisel  123 

tion  when  it  is  taken  up  by  the  player,  never 
varying  by  so  much  as  half-an-inch,  and  the 
correct  attack  by  the  bow,  in  which  the  ma j  or- 
ity  of  pupils  are  deficient.  If  the  violin  is  not 
held  at  the  proper  angle,  for  instance,  it  is  just 
as  though  a  piano  were  to  stand  on  a  sloping 
floor.  Too  many  students  play  'with  the  vio- 
lin' on  the  bow,  instead  of  holding  the  violin 
steady,  and  letting  the  bow  play. 

"And  in  beginning  to  study,  this  apparently 
simple,  yet  fundamentally  important,  princi- 
ple is  often  overlooked  or  neglected.  Joachim, 
when  he  studied  as  a  ten-year-old  boy  under 
Hellmesberger  in  Vienna,  once  played  a  part 
in  a  concerto  by  Maurer,  for  four  violins  and 
piano.  His  teacher  was  displeased:  'You'll 
never  be  a  fiddler!'  he  told  him,  'you  use  your 
bow  too  stiffly !'  But  the  boy's  father  took  him 
to  Bohm,  and  he  remained  with  this  teacher 
for  three  years,  until  his  fundamental  fault 
was  completely  overcome.  And  if  Joachim 
had  not  given  his  concentrated  attention  to 
his  bowing  while  there  was  still  time,  he  would 
never  have  been  the  great  artist  he  later  be- 
came. 


124  Violin  Mastery 


THE  ART  OF  THE  BOW 

"You  see,"  he  continued,  "the  secret  of 
really  beautiful  violin  playing  lies  in  the  bow. 
A  Blondin  crossing  Niagara  finds  his  wire 
hard  and  firm  where  he  first  steps  on  it.  But 
as  he  progresses  it  vibrates  with  increasing  in- 
tensity. And  as  the  tight-rope  walker  knows 
how  to  control  the  vibrations  of  his  wire,  so 
the  violinist  must  master  the  vibrations  of  his 
strings.  Each  section  of  the  string  vibrates 
with  a  different  quality  of  tone.  Most  pupils 
think  that  a  big  tone  is  developed  by  pressure 
with  the  bow — yet  much  depends  on  what  part 
of  the  string  this  pressure  is  applied.  Finger- 
ing is  an  art,  of  course,  but  the  great  art  is  the 
art  of  the  bow,  the  'art  of  bowing,'  as  Tartini 
calls  it.  When  a  pupil  understands  it  he  has 
gone  far. 

"Every  pupil  may  be  developed  to  a  certain 
degree  without  ever  suspecting  how  important 
a  factor  the  manipulation  of  the  bow  will  be  in 
his  further  progress.  He  thinks  that  if  the 
fingers  of  his  left  hand  are  agile  he  has  gained 
the  main  end  in  view.  But  then  he  comes  to 
a  stop — his  left  hand  can  no  longer  aid  him, 
and  he  finds  that  if  he  wants  to  play  with  real 


Franz  Kneisel  125 

beauty  of  expression  the  bow  supplies  the  only 
true  key.  Out  of  a  hundred  who  reach  this 
stage,"  Mr.  Kneisel  went  on,  rather  sadly, 
"only  some  five  or  six,  or  even  less,  become 
great  artists.  They  are  those  who  are  able  to 
control  the  bow  as  well  as  the  left  hand.  All 
real  art  begins  with  phrasing,  and  this,  too,  lies 
altogether  in  the  mastery  of  bow — the  very 
soul  of  the  violin!" 

I  asked  Mr.  Kneisel  how  he  came  to  write  his 
own  "Advanced  Exercises"  for  the  instru- 
ment. "I  had  an  idea  that  a  set  of  studies,  in 
which  each  single  study  presented  a  variety  of 
technical  figures  might  be  a  relief  from  the 
exercises  in  so  many  excellent  methods,  where 
pages  of  scales  are  followed  by  pages  of  ar- 
peggios, pages  of  double-notes  and  so  forth. 
It  is  very  monotonous  to  practice  pages  and 
pages  of  a  single  technical  figure,"  he  added. 
"Most  pupils  simply  will  not  do  it!"  He 
brought  out  a  copy  of  his  "Exercises"  and 
showed  me  their  plan.  "Here,  for  instance, 
I  have  scales,  trills,  arpeggios — all  in  the  same 
study,  and  the  study  is  conceived  as  a  musical 
composition  instead  of  a  technical  formula. 
This  is  a  study  in  finger  position,  with  all  pos- 
sible bowings.  My  aim  has  been  to  concen- 
trate the  technical  material  of  a  whole  violin 


126  Violin  Mastery 

school  in  a  set  of  etudes  with  musical  interest." 
And  he  showed  me  the  second  book  of  the 
studies,  in  ms.,  containing  exercises  in  every 
variety  of  scale,  and  trill,  bowing,  nuance,  etc., 
combined  in  a  single  musical  movement.  This 
volume  also  contains  his  own  cadenza  to  the 
Beethoven  violin  concerto.  In  conclusion  Mr. 
Kneisel  laid  stress  on  the  importance  of  the 
student's  hearing  the  best  music  at  concert  and 
recital  as  often  as  possible,  and  on  the  value 
and  incentive  supplied  by  a  musical  atmos- 
phere in  the  home  and,  on  leaving  him,  I  could 
not  help  but  feel  that  what  he  had  said  in  our 
interview,  his  reflections  and  observations 
based  on  an  artistry  beyond  cavil,  and  an  au- 
thoritative experience,  would  be  well  worth 
pondering  by  every  serious  student  of  the  in- 
strument. For  Franz  Kneisel  speaks  of  what 
he  knows. 


XI 
ADOLFO  BETTI 

THE  TECHNIC  OF  THE  MODERN  QUARTET 

What  lover  of  chamber  music  in  its  more 
perfect  dispensations  is  not  familiar  with  the 
figure  of  Adolf o  Betti,  the  guiding  brain  and 
bow  of  the  Flonzaley  Quartet  ?  Born  in  Flor- 
ence, he  played  his  first  public  concert  at  the 
age  of  six,  yet  as  a  youth  found  it  hard  to 
choose  between  literature,  for  which  he  had 
decided  aptitude,*  and  music.  Fortunately 
for  American  concert  audiences  of  to-day,  he 
finally  inclined  to  the  latter.  An  exponent  of 
what  many  consider  the  greatest  of  all  violin- 
istic  schools,  the  Belgian,  he  studied  for  four 
years  with  Cesar  Thomson  at  Liege,  spent  four 
more  concertizing  in  Vienna  and  elsewhere, 
and  returned  to  Thomson  as  the  latter's  assist- 
ant in  the  Brussels  Conservatory,  three  years 
before    he   joined   the    Flonzaleys,    in    1903. 

*  M.  Betti  has  published  a  number  of  critical  articles  in  the 
Guide  Mueical  of  Brussels,  the  Bivista  Mttsicale  of  Turin,  etc. 

127 


128  Violin  Mastery 

With  pleasant  recollections  of  earlier  meetings 
with  this  gifted  artist,  the  writer  sought  him 
out,  and  found  him  amiabty  willing  to  talk 
about  the  modern  quartet  and  its  ideals,  ideals 
which  he  personally  has  done  so  much  to  real- 
ize. 

THE  MODERN  QUARTET 

"You  ask  me  how  the  modern  quartet  dif- 
fers from  its  predecessors?"  said  Mr.  Betti. 
"It  differs  in  many  ways.  For  one  thing  the 
modern  quartet  has  developed  in  a  way  that 
makes  its  inner  voices — second  violin  and  viola 
— much  more  important  than  they  used  to  be. 
Originally,  as  in  Haydn's  early  quartets,  we 
have  a  violin  solo  with  three  accompanying  in- 
struments. In  Beethoven's  last  quartets  the 
intermediate  voices  have  already  gained  a 
freedom  and  individuality  which  before  him 
had  not  even  been  suspected.  In  these  last 
quartets  Beethoven  has  already  set  forth  the 
principle  which  was  to  become  the  basis  of 
modern  polyphony:  'first  of  all  to  allow  each 
voice  to  express  itself  freely  and  fully,  and 
afterward  to  see  what  the  relations  were  of  one 
to  the  other.'  In  fact,  no  one  has  exercised  a 
more  revolutionary  effect  on  the  quartet  than 
Beethoven — no  one  has  made  it  attain  so  great 


-/I  PEP  A  i 

-  If- 

J 


Aduli'O  Betti 


Adolfo  Beta  129 


a  degree  of  progress.  And  surely  the  dis- 
tance separating  the  quartet  as  Beethoven 
found  it,  from  the  quartet  as  he  left  it  (Grand 
Fugue,  Op.  131,  Op.  132),  is  greater  than 
that  which  lies  between  the  Fugue  Op.  132, 
and  the  most  advanced  modern  quartet,  let  us 
say,  for  instance,  Schonberg's  Op.  7.  Schon- 
berg,  by  the  way,  has  only  applied  and  devel- 
oped the  principles  established  by  Beethoven 
in  the  latter's  last  quartets.  But  in  the  mod- 
ern quartet  we  have  a  new  element,  one  which 
tends  more  and  more  to  become  preponderant, 
and  which  might  be  called  orchestral  rather 
than  da  camera.  Smetana,  Grieg,  Tschaikov- 
sky  were  the  first  to  follow  this  path,  in  which 
the  majority  of  the  moderns,  including  Franck 
and  Debussj^  have  followed  them.  And  in 
addition,  many  among  the  most  advanced  mod- 
ern composers  strive  for  orchestral  effects  that 
often  lie  outside  the  natural  capabilities  of  the 
strings! 

"For  instance  Stravinsky,  in  the  first  of  his 
three  impressionistic  sketches  for  quartet 
(which  we  have  played),  has  the  first  violin 
play  ponticello  throughout,  not  the  natural 
ponticello,  but  a  quite  special  one,  to  produce 
an  effect  of  a  bag-pipe  sounding  at  a  distance. 
I  had  to  try  again  and  again  till  I  found  the 


130  Violin  Mastery 

right  technical  means  to  produce  the  effect  de- 
sired. Then,  the  'cello  is  used  to  imitate  the 
drum;  there  are  special  technical  problems  for 
the  second  violin — a  single  sustained  D,  with 
an  accompanying  pizzicato  on  the  open 
strings — while  the  viola  is  required  to  suggest 
the  tramp  of  marching  feet.  And,  again,  \n 
other  modern  quartets  we  find  special  tech- 
nical devices  undreamt  of  in  earlier  days. 
Borodine,  for  instance,  is  the  first  to  system- 
atically employ  successions  of  harmonics.  In 
the  trio  of  his  first  quartet  the  melody  is  suc- 
cessively introduced  by  the  'cello  and  the  first 
violin,  altogether  in  harmonics. 

THE  MODERN  QUARTET  AND  AMATEUR  PLAYERS 

"You  ask  me  whether  the  average  quartet 
of  amateurs,  of  lovers  of  string  music,  can  get 
much  out  of  the  more  modern  quartets.  I 
would  say  yes,  but  with  some  serious  reserva- 
tions. There  has  been  much  beautiful  music 
written,  but  most  of  it  is  complicated.  In  the 
case  of  the  older  quartets,  Haydn,  Mozart, 
etc.,  even  if  they  are  not  played  well,  the  per- 
formers can  still  obtain  an  idea  of  the  music, 
of  its  thought  content.  But  in  the  modern 
quartets,  unless  each  individual  player  has  mas- 


Adolfo  Betti  131 


tered  every  technical  difficulty,  the  musical 
idea  does  not  pierce  through,  there  is  no  ef- 
fect. 

"I  remember  when  we  rehearsed  the  first 
Schonberg  quartet.  It  was  in  1913,  at  a  Chi- 
cago hotel,  and  we  had  no  score,  but  only  the 
separate  parts.  The  results,  at  our  first  at- 
tempt, were  so  dreadful  that  we  stopped  after 
a  few  pages.  It  was  not  till  I  had  secured  a 
score,  studied  it  and  again  tried  it  that  we  be- 
gan to  see  a  light.  Finally  there  was  not  one 
measure  which  we  did  not  understand.  But 
Schonberg,  Reger,  Ravel  quartets  make  too 
great  a  demand  on  the  technical  ability  of  the 
average  quartet  amateur. 

THE  TECHNIC  OF  QUARTET  PLAYING 

"Naturally,  the  first  violin  is  the  leader,  the 
Conductor  of  the  quartet,  as  in  its  early  days, 
although  the  'star'  system,  with  one  virtuose 
player  and  three  satellites,  has  disappeared. 
Now  the  quartet  as  a  whole  has  established  it- 
self in  the  virtuoso  field — using  the  word  vir- 
tuoso in  its  best  sense.  The  Miiller  quartet 
(Hanover),  1845-1850,  was  the  first  to  travel 
as  a  chamber  music  organization,  and  the  fa- 
mous Florentiner  Quartet  the  first  to  realize 


132  Violin  Mastery 

what  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  finish  in 
playing.  As  premier  violiniste  of  the  Flon- 
zaley's  I  study  and  prepare  the  interpretation 
of  the  works  we  are  to  play  before  any  re- 
hearsing is  done. 

"While  the  first  violin  still  holds  first  place 
in  the  modern  quartet,  the  second  violin  has 
become  much  more  important  than  formerljs 
it  has  gained  in  individuality.  In  many  of  the 
newer  quartets  it  is  quite  as  important  as  the 
first.  In  Hugo  Wolf's  quartet,  for  example, 
first  and  second  violins  are  employed  as  though 
in  a  concerto  for  two  violins. 

"The  viola,  especially  in  modern  French 
works — Ravel,  Debussy,  Samazeuil — has  a 
prominent  part.  In  the  older  quartets  one 
reason  the  viola  parts  are  simple  is  because  the 
alto  players  as  a  rule  were  technically  less 
skillful.  As  a  general  thing  they  were  violin- 
ists who  had  failed — 'the  refugees  of  the  G 
clef,'  as  Edouard  Colonne,  the  eminent  con- 
ductor, once  wittily  said.  But  the  reason 
modern  French  composers  give  the  viola  spe- 
cial attention  is  because  France  now  is  ahead 
of  the  other  nations  in  virtuose  viola  playing. 
It  is  practically  the  only  country  which  may 
be  said  to  have  a  'school'  of  viola  playing.  In 
the  Smetana  quartet  the  viola  plays  a  most  im- 


Adolfo  Betti  133 


portant  part,  and  Dvorak,  who  himself  played 
viola,  emphasized  the  instrument  in  his  quar- 
tets. 

"Mozart  showed  what  the  'cello  was  able  to 
do  in  the  quartets  he  dedicated  to  the  '  'cellist 
king,'  Frederick  William  of  Prussia.  And 
then,  the  'cello  has  always  the  musical  impor- 
tance which  attaches  to  it  as  the  lower  of  the 
two  'outer  voices'  of  the  quartet  ensemble. 
Like  the  second  violin  and  viola,  it  has  experi- 
enced a  technical  and  musical  development  be- 
yond anything  Haydn  or  Mozart  would  have 
dared  to  write. 

REHEARSING 

"Realization  of  the  Art  aims  of  the  modern 
quartet  calls  for  endless  rehearsal.  Few  peo- 
ple realize  the  hard  work  and  concentrated  ef- 
fort entailed.  And  there  are  always  new 
problems  to  solve.  After  preparing  a  new 
score  in  advance,  we  meet  and  establish  its  gen- 
eral idea,  its  broad  outlines  in  actual  playing. 
And  then,  gradually,  we  fill  in  the  details.  Or- 
dinarily we  rehearse  three  hours  a  day,  less 
during  the  concert  season,  of  course;  but  al- 
v/ays  enough  to  keep  absolutely  in  trim.  And 
we  vary  our  practice  programs  in  order  to  keep 
mentally  fresh  as  well  as  technically  fit. 


134  Violin  Mastery 


INTONATION 

"Perfect  intonation  is  a  great  problem — one 
practically  unknown  to  the  average  amateur 
quartet  player.  Four  players  may  each  one 
of  them  be  playing  in  tune,  in  pitch;  yet  their 
chords  may  not  be  truly  in  tune,  because  of  the 
individual  bias — a  trifle  sharp,  a  trifle  flat — 
in  interpreting  pitch.  This  individual  bias 
may  be  caused  by  the  attraction  existing  be- 
tween certain  notes,  by  differences  of  register 
and  timhre,  or  any  number  of  other  reasons 
— too  many  to  recount.  The  true  beauty  of 
the  quartet  tone  cannot  be  obtained  unless 
there  is  an  exact  adjustment,  a  tempering  of 
the  individual  pitch  of  each  instrument,  till 
perfect  accordance  exists.  This  is  far  more 
difficult  and  complicated  than  one  might  at  first 
believe.  For  example,  let  us  take  one  of  the 
simplest  violin  chords,"  said  Mr.  Betti  [and  he 
rapidly  set  it  down  in  pencil] . 


» 


M 


"Now  let  us  begin  by  fixing  the  B  so  that 
it  is  perfectly  in  tune  with  the  E,  then  without 
at  all  changing  the  B,  take  the  interval  D-B. 


Adolf 0  Bctti  135 

You  will  see  that  the  sixth  will  not  be  in  tune. 
Repeat  the  experiment,  inverting  the  notes ;  the 
result  will  still  be  the  same.  Try  it  yourself 
some  time,"  added  Mr.  Betti  with  a  smile, 
"and  you  will  see.  What  is  the  reason?  It 
is  because  the  middle  B  has  not  been  adjusted, 
tempered!  Give  the  same  notes  to  the  first 
and  second  violins  and  the  viola  and  you  will 
have  the  same  result.  Then,  when  the  'cello 
is  added,  the  problem  is  still  more  comphcated, 
owing  to  the  difference  in  timbre  and  register. 
Yet  it  is  a  problem  which  can  be  solved,  and 
is  solved  in  practically  everything  we  play. 

"Another  difficulty,  especially  in  the  case  of 
some  of  the  very  daring  chords  encountered  in 
modern  compositions,  is  the  matter  of  balance 
between  the  individual  notes.  There  are 
chords  which  only  sound  well  if  certain  notes 
are  thrown  into  relief;  and  others  only  if 
played  very  softly  (almost  as  though  they 
were  overtones).  To  overcome  such  difficul- 
ties means  a  great  deal  of  work,  real  musical 
instinct  and,  above  all,  great  familiarity  with 
the  composer's  harmonic  processes.  Yet  with 
time  and  patience  the  true  balance  of  tone  can 
be  obtained. 


136  Violin  31  aster y 


TEMPO 

*'A11  four  individual  players  must  be  able 
to  feel  the  tempo  they  are  playing  in  the  same 
way.  I  believe  it  was  Mahler  who  once  gave 
out  a  beat  very  distinctly — one,  two,  three — 
told  his  orchestra  players  to  count  the  beat 
silently  for  twenty  measures  and  then  stop. 
As  each  felt  the  beat  diiTerently  from  the 
other,  every  one  of  them  stopped  at  a  differ- 
ent time.  So  tempo,  just  like  intonation, 
must  be  'tempered'  by  the  four  quartet  players 
in  order  to  secure  perfect  rhythmic  inflection. 

DYNAMICS 

"Modern  composers  have  wonderfully  im- 
proved dynamic  expression.  Every  little 
shade  of  meaning  they  make  clear  with  great 
distinctness.  The  older  composers,  and  occa- 
sionally a  modern  like  Emanuel  Moor,  do  not 
use  expression  marks.  Moor  says,  'If  the  per- 
formers really  have  something  to  put  into  my 
work  the  signs  are  not  needed.'  Yet  this  has 
its  disadvantages.  I  once  had  an  entirely  un- 
marked Sonata  by  Sammartini.  As  most  first 
movements  in  the  sonatas  of  that  composer 


Adolfo  Beta  137 


are  allegros  I  tried  the  beginning  several  times 
as  an  allegro,  but  it  sounded  radically  wrong. 
Then,  at  last,  it  occurred  to  me  to  try  it  as  a 
largo  and,  behold,  it  was  beautiful! 

INTERPRETATION 

"If  the  leader  of  the  quartet  has  lived  him- 
self into  and  mastered  a  composition,  together 
with  his  associates,  the  result  is  sure.  I  must 
live  in  the  music  I  play  just  as  an  actor  must 
live  the  character  he  represents.  All  higher 
interpretation  depends  on  solving  technical 
problems  in  a  way  which  is  not  narrowly  me- 
chanical. And  while  the  ensemble  spirit  must 
be  preserved,  the  freedom  of  the  individual 
should  not  be  too  much  restrained.  Once  the 
style  and  manner  of  a  modern  composer  are 
familiar,  it  is  easier  to  present  his  works :  when 
we  first  played  the  Reger  quartet  here  some 
twenty  years  ago,  we  found  pages  which  at  first 
we  could  not  at  all  understand.  If  one  has 
fathomed  Debussy,  it  is  easier  to  play  Milhaud, 
Koger-Ducasse,  Samazeuil — for  the  music  of 
the  modern  French  school  has  much  in  com- 
mon. One  great  cultural  value  the  profes- 
sional quartet  has  for  the  musical  community 
is  the  fact  that  it  gives  a  large  circle  a  meas- 


138  Violin  Mastery 

ure  of  acquaintance  with  the  mode  of  thought 
and  style  of  composers  whose  symphonic  and 
larger  works  are  often  an  unknown  quantity. 
This  applies  to  Debussy,  Reger,  the  modern 
Russians,  Bloch  and  others.  When  we  played 
the  Stravinsky  pieces  here,  for  instance,  his 
Petrovyschka  and  Firebird  had  not  yet  been 
heard. 

SOME  IDEALS 

"We  try,  as  an  organization,  to  be  absolutely 
catholic  in  taste.  Nor  do  we  neglect  the  older 
music,  because  we  play  so  much  of  the  new. 
This  year  we  are  devoting  special  attention 
to  the  American  composers.  Formerly  the 
Kneisels  took  care  of  them,  and  now  we  feel 
that  we  should  assume  this  legacy.  We  have 
already  played  Daniel  Gregory  Mason's  fine 
Intermezzo,  and  the  other  American  numbers 
we  have  played  include  David  Stanley  Smith's 
Second  Quartet,  and  movements  from  quartets 
by  Victor  Kolar  and  Samuel  Gardner.  We 
are  also  going  to  revive  Charles  Martin  Loef- 
fler's  Rhapsodies  for  viola,  oboe  and  piano. 

*'I  have  been  for  some  time  making  a  col- 
lection of  sonatas  a  tre,  two  violins  and  'cello 
— delightful  old  things  by  Sammartini,  Le- 
clair,    the    Englishman    Boyce,    Friedemann 


Adolf o  Beta  139 


Bach  and  others.  This  is  material  from  which 
the  amateur  could  derive  real  enjoyment  and 
profit.  The  Leclair  sonata  in  D  minor  we 
have  played  some  three  hundred  times ;  and  its 
slow  movement  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
largos  I  know  of  in  all  chamber  music.  The 
same  thing  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  tran- 
scription for  chamber  music  which  Kreisler  has 
already  done  so  charmingly  for  the  solo  vio- 
lin. And  I  would  dearly  love  to  do  it !  There 
are  certain  'primitives'  of  the  quartet — Johann 
Christian  Bach,  Gossec,  Telemann,  INIichel 
Haydn — who  have  written  music  full  of  the 
rarest  melodic  charm  and  freshness.  I  have 
much  excellent  material  laid  by,  but  as  you 
know,"  concluded  ISlr.  Betti  with  a  sigh,  "one 
has  so  little  time  for  anything  in  America." 


XII 
HANS  LETZ 

THE  TECHNIC  OF  BOWING 

Hans  Letz,  the  gifted  Alsatian  violinist,  is 
well  fitted  to  talk  on  any  phase  of  his  Art.  xV 
pupil  of  Joachim  (he  came  to  this  country  in 
1908),  he  was  for  three  years  concertmaster 
of  the  Thomas  orchestra,  appearing  as  a  solo 
artist  in  most  of  our  large  cities,  and  was  not 
only  one  of  the  Kneisels  (he  joined  that  organ- 
ization in  1912),  but  the  leader  of  a  quartet 
of  his  own.  As  a  teacher,  too,  he  is  active  in 
giving  others  an  opportunity  to  apply  the  les- 
sons of  his  own  experience. 

VIOLIN   MASTERY 

When  asked  for  his  definition  of  the  term, 
Mr.  Letz  said:  "There  can  be  no  such  thing 
as  an  absolute  mastery  of  the  violin.  Mastery 
is  a  relative  term.  The  artist  is  first  of  all 
more  or  less  dependent  on  circumstances  which 

140 


Hans  Letz  141 

he  cannot  control — his  mood,  the  weather, 
strings,  a  thousand  and  one  incidentals.  And 
then,  the  nearer  he  gets  to  his  ideal,  the  more 
apt  his  ideal  is  to  escape  him.  Yet,  discount- 
ing all  objections,  I  should  say  that  a  master 
should  be  able  to  express  perfectly  the  com- 
poser's idea,  reflected  by  his  own  sensitive  soul. 

THE   KEY  TO   INTERPRETATION 

"The  bow  is  the  key  to  this  mastery  in  ex- 
pression, in  interpretation:  in  a  lesser  degree 
the  left  hand.  The  average  pupil  does  not 
realize  this  but  believes  that  mere  finger  facil- 
ity is  the  whole  gist  of  technic.  Yet  the  rich- 
est color,  the  most  delicate  nuance^  is  mainly  a 
matter  of  bowing.  In  the  left  hand,  of  course, 
the  vibrato  gives  a  certain  amount  of  color  ef- 
fect, the  intense,  dramatic  tone  quality  of  the 
rapid  vibrato  is  comparable  on  the  violin  to  the 
tremulando  of  the  singer.  At  the  same  time 
the  vibrato  used  to  excess  is  quite  as  bad  as  an 
excessive  tremulando  in  the  voice.  But  con- 
trol of  the  bow  is  the  key  to  the  gates  of  the 
great  field  of  declamation,  it  is  the  means  of 
articulation  and  accent,  it  gives  character,  com- 
prising the  entire  scale  of  the  emotions.  In 
fact,  declamation  with  the  violin  bow  is  very 


142  Violin  Mastery 

much  like  declamation  in  dramatic  art.  And 
the  attack  of  the  bow  on  the  string  should  be 
as  incisive  as  the  utterance  of  the  first  accented 
syllable  of  a  spoken  word.  The  bow  is  em- 
phatically the  means  of  expression,  but  only 
the  advanced  pupil  can  develop  its  finer,  more 
dehcate  expressional  possibilities. 

THE  TECHNIC  OF  BOWING 

"Genius  does  many  things  by  instinct,  And 
it  sometimes  happens  that  very  great  perform- 
ers, trying  to  explain  some  technical  function, 
do  not  know  how  to  make  their  meaning  clear. 
With  regard  to  bowing,  I  remember  that  Joa- 
chim (a  master  colorist  with  the  bow)  used 
to  tell  his  students  to  play  largely  with  the 
wrist.  What  he  really  meant  was  with  an  el- 
bow-joint movement,  that  is,  moving  the  bow, 
which  should  always  be  connected  with  a  move- 
ment of  the  forearm  by  means  of  the  elbow- 
joint.  The  ideal  bow  stroke  results  from 
keeping  the  joints  of  the  right  arm  loose,  and 
at  the  same  time  firm  enough  to  control  each 
motion  made.  A  difficult  thing  for  the  student 
is  to  learn  to  draw  the  bow  across  the  strings 
at  a  right  angle,  the  only  way  to  produce  a 
good  tone.     I  find  it  helps  my  pupils  to  tell 


Hans  Letz 


143 


them  not  to  think  of  the  position  of  the  bow- 
arm  while  drawing  the  bow  across  the  strings, 
but  merely  to  follow  with  the  tips  of  the  fin- 
gers of  the  right  hand  an  imaginarj^  line  run- 
ning at  a  right  angle  across  the  strings.  The 
whole  bow  then  moves  as  it  should,  and  the  arm 
motions  unconsciously  adjust  themselves. 

EHYTHM  AND  COLOR 

"Rhythm  is  the  foundation  of  all  music — not 
rhythm  in  its  metronomic  sense,  but  in  the 
broader  sense  of  proportion.  I  lay  the  great- 
est stress  on  the  development  of  rhythmic  sen- 
sibility in  the  student.  Rhythm  gives  life  to 
every  musical  phrase."  Mr.  Letz  had  a 
Brahms'  quartet  open  on  his  music  stand. 
Playing  the  following  passage,  he  said : 


"In  order  to  give  this  phrase  its  proper 
rhythmic  value,  to  express  it  clearly,  plas- 
tically, there  must  be  a  very  slight  separation 
between  the  sixteenths  and  the  eighth-note  fol- 
lowing them.  This — the  bow  picked  uj)  a 
trifle  from  the  strings — throws  the  sixteenths 
into  relief.     As  I  have  already  said,  tone  color 


144  Violin  Master^/ 

is  for  the  main  part  controlled  by  the  bow.  If 
I  draw  the  bow  above  the  fingerboard  instead 
of  keeping  it  near  the  bridge,  I  have  a  decided 
contrast  in  color.  This  color  contrast  may  al- 
ways be  established:  playing  near  the  bridge 
results  in  a  clear  and  sharp  tone,  playing  near 
the  fingerboard  in  a  veiled  and  velvety  one. 


SUGGESTIONS  IN  TEACHING 

"I  find  that,  aside  from  the  personal  illus- 
tration absolutely  necessary  when  teaching, 
that  an  appeal  to  the  pupil's  imagination  usu- 
ally bears  fruit.  In  developing  tone-quality, 
let  us  say,  I  tell  the  pupil  his  phrases  should 
have  a  golden,  mellow  color,  the  tonal  equiv- 
alent of  the  hues  of  the  sunrise.  I  vary  my 
pictures  according  to  the  circumstances  and 
the  pupil,  in  most  cases,  reacts  to  them.  In 
fast  bowings,  for  instance,  I  make  three  color 
distinctions  or  rather  sound  distinctions. 
There  is  the  'color  of  rain,'  when  a  fast  bow 
is  pushed  gently  over  the  strings,  while  not  al- 
lowed to  jump;  the  'color  of  snowflakes'  pro- 
duced when  the  hairs  of  the  bow  always  touch 
the  strings,  and  the  wood  dances ;  and  'the  color 
of  hair  (which  seldom  occurs  in  the  classics). 


Hans  Letz  145 

when  in  the  real  characteristic  spiccato  the 
whole  bow  leaves  the  string." 

THE  ART  AND  THE  SCHOOLS 

In  reply  to  another  question,  Mr.  Letz 
added:  "Great  violin  playing  is  great  violin 
playing,  irrespective  of  school  or  nationality. 
Of  course  the  Belgians  and  French  have 
notable  elegance,  polish,  finish  in  detail.  The 
French  lay  stress  on  sensuous  beauty  of  tone. 
The  German  temperament  is  perhaps  broader, 
neglecting  sensuous  beauty  for  beauty  of  idea, 
developing  the  scholarly  side.  Sarasate,  the 
Spaniard,  is  a  unique  national  figure.  The 
Slavs  seem  to  have  a  natural  gift  for  the  vio- 
lin— perhaps  because  of  centuries  of  repres- 
sion— and  are  passionately  temperamental. 
In  their  playing  we  find  that  melancholy,  com- 
bined with  an  intense  craving  for  joy,  which 
runs  through  all  Slavonic  music  and  litera- 
ture. Yet,  all  said  and  done,  Art  is  and  re- 
mains first  of  all  international,  and  the  great 
violinist  is  a  great  artist,  no  matter  what  his 
native  land." 


XIII 
DAVID  MANNES 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  VIOLIN  TEACHING 

That  David  IMannes,  the  well-known  vio- 
linist and  conductor,  so  long  director  of  the 
New  York  Music  School  Settlement,  would 
be  able  to  speak  in  an  interesting  and  authori- 
tative manner  on  his  art,  was  a  foregone  con- 
clusion in  the  writer's  mind.  A  visit  to  the 
educator's  own  beautiful  "Music  School"  con- 
firmed this  conviction.  In  reply  to  some 
questions  concerning  his  own  study  years  INIr, 
Mannes  spoke  of  his  work  with  Heinrich  de 
Ahna,  Karl  Halir  and  Eugene  Ysaye.  "When 
I  came  to  de  Ahna  in  Berlin,  I  was,  unfortu- 
nately, not  yet  ready  for  him,  and  so  did  not 
get  much  benefit  from  his  instruction.  In  the 
case  of  Halir,  to  whom  I  went  later,  I  was  in 
much  better  shape  to  take  advantage  of  what 
he  could  give  me,  and  profited  accordingly. 
It  is  a  point  any  student  may  well  note — that 
when  he  thinks   of  studying  with   some  fa- 

146 


David  Manxes 


David  Mamies  147 

mous  teacher  he  be  technically  and  musically 
equipped  to  take  advantage  of  all  that  the  lat- 
ter may  be  able  to  give  him.  Otherwise  it  is 
a  case  of  love's  labor  lost  on  the  part  of  both. 
Karl  Halir  was  a  sincere  and  very  thorough 
teacher.  He  was  a  Spohr  player  par  excel- 
lence, and  I  have  never  found  his  equal  in  the 
playing  of  Spohr's  Gesangsscene.  With  him 
I  studied  Kreutzer,  Rode,  Fiorillo;  and  to 
know  Halir  as  a  teacher  was  to  know  him  at 
his  best;  since  as  a  public  performer — great 
violinist  as  he  was — he  did  not  do  himself  jus- 
tice, because  he  was  too  nervous  and  high- 
strung. 

STUDYING   WITH    YSAYE 

"It  was  while  sitting  among  the  first  violins 
in  the  New  York  Symphony  Orchestra  that 
I  first  heard  Ysaye.  And  for  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  heard  a  man  with  whom  I  fer- 
vently wanted  to  study;  an  artist  whose  whole 
attitude  with  regard  to  tone  and  sound  repro- 
duction embodied  my  ideals. 

"I  worked  with  Ysaye  in  Brussels  and  in 
his  cottage  at  Godinne.  Here  he  taught  much 
as  Liszt  did  at  Weimar,  a  group  of  from  ten 
to  twenty  disciples.  Early  in  the  morning  he 
went  fishing  in  the  Meuse,  then  back  to  break- 


148  Violin  31  aster y 

fast  and  then  came  the  lessons :  not  more  than 
three  or  four  a  day.  Those  who  studied  drew 
inspiration  from  him  as  the  pianists  of  the 
Weimar  circle  did  from  their  Master.  In 
fact,  Ysaye's  standpoint  toward  music  had  a 
good  deal  in  common  with  Rubinstein's  and 
he  often  said  he  wished  he  could  play  the  vio- 
lin as  Rubinstein  did  the  piano.  Ysaye  is  an 
artist  who  has  transcended  his  own  medium — 
he  has  become  a  poet  of  sound.  And  unless 
the  one  studying  with  him  could  understand 
and  appreciate  this  fact  he  made  a  poor 
teacher.  But  to  me,  in  all  humility,  he  was 
and  will  always  remain  a  wonderful  inspira- 
tion. As  an  influence  in  my  career  his  mar- 
velous genius  is  unique.  In  my  own  teach- 
ing I  have  only  to  recall  his  tone,  his  playing 
in  his  little  cottage  on  the  banks  of  the  Meuse 
which  the  tide  of  war  has  swept  away,  to  real- 
ize in  a  cumulative  sense  the  things  he  tried  to 
make  plain  to  me  then.  Ysaye  taught  the 
technic  of  expression  as  against  the  expression 
of  technic.  He  gave  the  lessons  of  a  thousand 
teachers  in  place  of  the  lessons  of  one.  The 
greatest  technical  development  was  required 
by  Ysaye  of  a  pupil;  and  given  this  pre- 
requisite, he  could  open  up  to  him  ever  enlarg- 
ing horizons  of  musical  beauty. 


David  Marines  149 

"Nor  did  he  think  that  the  true  beauty  of 
violin  playing  must  depend  upon  six  to  eight 
hours  of  daily  practice  work.  I  absolutely  be- 
lieve with  Ysaye  that  unless  a  student  can 
make  satisfactory  progress  with  three  hours  of 
practice  a  day,  he  should  not  attempt  to  play 
the  violin.  Inability  to  do  so  is  in  itself  a  con- 
fession of  failure  at  the  outset.  Nor  do  I 
think  it  possible  to  practice  the  violin  inten- 
sively more  than  three-quarters  of  an  hour  at 
a  time.  In  order  to  utilize  his  three  hours  of 
practice  to  the  best  advantage  the  student 
should  divide  them  into  four  periods,  with  in- 
tervals of  rest  between  each,  and  these  rest 
periods  might  simply  represent  a  transfer  of 
energy — which  is  a  rest  in  itself — to  reading 
or  some  other  occupation  not  necessarily  ger- 
mane to  music,  yet  likely  to  stimulate  interest 
in  some  other  art. 

SOME   INITIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   VIOLIN   STUDY 

"The  violin  student  first  and  foremost 
should  accustom  himself  to  practicing  purely 
technical  exercises  without  notes.  The  scales 
and  arpeggios  should  never  be  played  other- 
wise and  books  of  scales  should  be  used  only 
as  a  reference.     Quite  as  important  as  scale 


150  Violin  Mastery 

practice  are  broken  chords.  On  the  violin 
these  cannot  be  played  solidly,  as  on  the  piano.; 
but  must  be  studied  as  arpeggios,  in  the  most 
exhaustive  way,  harmonically  and  technically. 
Their  great  value  lies  in  developing  an  innate 
musical  sense,  in  establishing  an  idea  of  tonal- 
ity and  harmony  that  becomes  so  deeply 
rooted  that  every  other  key  is  as  natural  to  the 
player  as  is  the  key  of  C.  Work  of  this  kind 
can  never  be  done  ideally  in  class.  But  every 
individual  student  must  himself  come  to  real- 
ize the  necessity  of  doing  technical  work  with- 
out notes  as  a  matter  of  dail}^  exercise,  even 
though  his  time  be  limited.  Perhaps  the  most 
difficult  of  all  lessons  is  learning  to  hold  the 
violin.  There  are  pupils  to  whom  holding  the 
instrument  presents  insurmountable  obstacles. 
Such  pupils,  instead  of  struggling  in  vain  with 
a  physical  difficulty,  might  rather  take  up  the 
studj"-  of  the  'cello,  whose  weight  rests  on  the 
floor.  That  many  a  student  was  not  intended 
to  be  a  violin  player  by  nature  is  proved  by 
the  various  inventions,  chin-rests,  braces,  in- 
tended to  suppty  what  nature  has  not  sup- 
plied. The  study  of  the  violin  should  never 
be  allowed  if  it  is  going  to  result  in  actual 
physical  deformity:  raising  of  the  left  shoul- 
der, malformation  of  the  back,  or  eruptions 


David  Marines  151 

resulting  from  chin-rest  pressure.  These  are 
all  eAadences  of  physical  unfitness,  or  of  incor- 
rect teaching. 

THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   VIOLIN    TEACHING 

"Class  study  is  for  the  advanced  student, 
not  the  beginner.  In  the  beginning  only  the 
closest  personal  contact  between  the  individ- 
ual pupil  and  the  teacher  is  desirable.  To 
borrow  an  analogy  from  nature,  the  student 
may  be  compared  to  the  young  bird  whose  un- 
trained wings  will  not  allow  him  to  take  any 
trial  flights  unaided  by  his  natural  guardian. 
For  the  beginning  violinist  the  principal 
thing  to  do  is  to  learn  the  'voice  placing'  of  the 
violin.  This  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the 
proper — which  is  the  easy  and  natural — man- 
ner of  holding  the  violin,  bow  study,  and  an 
appreciation  of  the  acoustics  of  the  instru- 
ment. The  student's  attention  should  at  onc^ 
be  called  to  the  marvelous  and  manifold  quali- 
ties of  the  violin  tone,  and  he  should  at  once 
familiarize  himself  with  the  development  of 
those  contrasts  of  stress  and  pressure,  ease  and 
relaxation  which  are  instrumental  in  its  pro- 
duction. The  analogies  between  the  violin 
voice  and  the  human  voice  should  also  be  de- 


152  Violin  Mastery 

veloped.  The  violin  itself  must  to  all  intents 
become  a  part  of  the  player  himself,  just  as 
the  vocal  chords  are  part  of  the  human  body. 
It  should  not  be  considered  a  foreign  tone- 
producing  instrument  adjusted  to  the  body  of 
the  performer;  but  an  extension,  a  projection 
of  his  physical  self.  In  a  way  it  is  easier  for 
the  violinist  to  get  at  the  chords  of  the  violin 
and  make  them  sound,  since  they  are  all  ex- 
posed, which  is  not  the  case  with  the  singer. 

"There  are  two  dangerous  points  in  pres- 
ent-day standards  of  violin  teaching.  One  is 
represented  by  the  ver)^  efficient  European 
professional  standards  of  technic,  which  may 
result  in  an  absolute  failure  of  poetic  musical 
comprehension.  These  should  not  be  trans- 
planted here  from  European  soil.  The  other 
is  the  non-technical,  sentimental,  formless  spe- 
cies of  teaching  which  can  only  result  in  emo- 
tional enervation.  Yet  if  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween the  two  the  former  would  be  preferable 
since  without  tools  it  is  impossible  to  carve 
anything  of  beauty.  The  final  beauty  of  the 
violin  tone,  the  pure  legato,  remains  in  the  be- 
ginning as  in  the  end  a  matter  of  holding  the 
violin  and  bow.  Together  they  'place'  the 
tone  just  as  the  physical  media  in  the  throat 
'place'  the  tone  of  the  voice. 


David  Mannes  153 

"Piano  teachers  have  made  greater  advances 
in  the  tone  developing  technic  of  their  instru- 
ment than  the  viohn  teachers.  One  reason  is, 
that  as  a  class  they  are  more  intellectual.  And 
then,  too,  violin  teaching  is  regarded  too  often 
as  a  mj'stic  art,  an  occult  science,  and  one  into 
which  only  those  specially  gifted  may  hope  to 
be  initiated.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  fal- 
lacy. Just  as  a  gift  for  mathematics  is  a  spe- 
cial talent  not  given  to  all,  so  a  natural  tech- 
nical talent  exists  in  relatively  few  people. 
Yet  this  does  not  imply  that  the  majority  are 
shut  off  from  playing  the  violin  and  playing 
it  well.  Any  student  who  has  music  in  his 
soul  may  be  taught  to  play  simple,  and  even 
relatively  more  difficult  music  with  (beauty, 
beaut}^  of  expression  and  interpretation. 
This  he  may  be  taught  to  do  even  though  not 
endowed  with  a  natural  technical  facility 
for  the  violin.  A  proof  that  natural  tech- 
nical facility  is  anything  but  a  guarantee 
of  higher  musicianship  is  shown  in  that  the 
musical  weakness  of  many  brilliant  violinists, 
hidden  by  the  technical  elaboration  of  virtuoso 
pieces,  is  only  apparent  when  they  attempt  to 
play  a  Beethoven  adagio  or  a  simple  Mozart 
rondo. 

"In  a  number  of  cases  the  unsuccessful  solo 


154  Violin  Mastery 

player  has  a  bad  effect  on  violin  teaching. 
Usually  the  soloist  who  has  not  made  a  suc- 
cess as  a  concert  artist  takes  up  teaching  as  a 
last  resort,  without  enthusiasm  or  the  true  vo- 
cational instinct.  The  false  standards  he  sets 
up  for  his  pupils  are  a  natural  result  of  his 
own  ineffectual  worship  of  the  fetish  of  vir- 
tuosity— those  of  the  musical  mountebank  of 
a  hundred  years  ago.  Of  course  such  false 
prophets  of  the  virtuose  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  such  high-priests  of  public  utterance 
as  Ysaye,  Kreisler  and  others,  whose  virtuos- 
ity is  a  true  means  for  the  higher  development 
of  the  musical.  The  encouragement  of  musi- 
cianship in  general  suffers  for  the  stress  laid 
on  what  is  obviously  technical  impedimenta. 
But  more  and  more,  as  time  passes,  the  playing 
of  such  artists  as  those  already  mentioned,  and 
others  like  them,  shows  that  the  real  musician 
is  the  lover  of  beautiful  sound,  which  technic 
merely  develops  in  the  highest  degree. 

"To-day  technic  in  a  cumulative  sense  often 
is  a  confession  of  failure.  For  technic  does 
not  do  what  it  so  often  claims  to — produce  the 
artist.  Most  professional  teaching  aims  to 
prepare  the  student  for  professional  life,  the 
concert  stage.  Hence  there  is  an  intensive 
technical  study  of  compositions  that  even  if 


David  Mannes  155 

not  wholly  intended  for  display  are  primarily 
and  principally  projected  for  its  sake.  It  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  few,  even  among  gifted 
players,  can  sit  down  to  play  chamber  music 
and  do  it  justice.  This  is  not  because  they 
cannot  grasp  or  understand  it ;  or  because  their 
technic  is  insufficient.  It  is  because  their 
whole  violinistic  education  has  been  along  the 
line  of  solo  playing;  they  have  literally  been 
brought  up,  not  to  play  with  others,  but  to  be 
accompanied  by  others. 

"Yet  despite  all  this  there  has  been  a  no- 
table development  of  violin  study  in  the  direc- 
tion of  ensemble  work  with,  as  a  result,  an  at- 
titude on  the  part  of  the  violinists  cultivating 
it,  of  greater  humility  as  regards  music  in  gen- 
eral, a  greater  appreciation  of  the  charm  of 
artistic  collaboration:  and — I  insist — a  technic 
both  finer  and  more  flexible.  Chamber  music 
— originally  music  written  for  the  intimate 
surroundings  of  the  home,  for  a  small  circle 
of  listeners — carries  out  in  its  informal  way 
many  of  the  ideals  of  the  larger  orchestral 
ensemble.  And,  as  regards  the  violinist,  he  is 
not  dependent  only  on  the  literature  of  the 
string  quartet;  there  are  piano  quintets  and 
quartets,  piano  trios,  and  the  duos  for  violin 
and  piano.    Some  of  the  most  beautiful  instru- 


156  Violin  Masterif 

mental  thoughts  of  the  classic  and  modern 
composers  are  to  be  found  in  the  duo  for 
viohn  and  piano,  mainly  in  the  sonata  form. 
Amateurs — violinists  who  love  music  for  its 
own  sake,  and  have  sufficient  facility  to  per- 
form such  works  creditably — do  not  do  nearly 
enough  ensemble  playing  with  a  pianist.  It  is 
not  always  possible  to  get  together  the  four 
players  needed  for  the  string  quartet,  but  a 
pianist  is  apt  to  be  more  readily  found. 

"The  combination  of  violin  and  piano  is  as 
a  rule  obtainable  and  the  literature  is  par- 
ticularly rich.  Aside  from  sonatas  by  Corelli, 
Locatelli,  Tartini,  Bach,  Mozart,  Beethoven, 
Haendel,  Brahms  and  Schumann,  nearly  all 
the  romantic  and  modern  composers  have  con- 
tributed to  it.  And  this  music  has  all  been 
written  so  as  to  show  the  character  of  each  in- 
strument at  its  best — the  piano,  harmonic  in 
its  nature ;  the  violin,  a  natural  melodic  voice, 
capable  of  every  shade  of  nuance."  That  Mr. 
Mannes,  as  an  artist,  has  made  a  point  of 
"practicing  what  he  preaches"  to  the  student 
as  regards  the  ensemble  of  violin  and  piano  will 
be  recalled  by  all  who  have  enjoyed  the  'Sonata 
Recitals*  he  has  given  together  with  Mrs, 
Mannes.     And  as  an  interpreting  solo  artist 


David  Mannes  157 

his  views  regarding  the  moot  question  of  gut 
versus  wire  strings  are  of  interest. 

GUT  VERSUS  WIRE  STRINGS 

"My  own  violin,  a  Maggini  of  more  than  the 
usual  size,  dates  from  the  year  1600.  It 
formerly  belonged  to  Dr.  Leopold  Damrosch. 
Which  strings  do  I  use  on  it?  The  whole  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  gut  or  wire  strings  are  to  be 
preferred  maj^  in  my  opinion,  be  referred  to 
the  violin  itself  for  decision.  What  I  mean  is 
that  if  Stradivarius,  Guarnerius,  Amati,  INIag- 
gini  and  others  of  the  old-master  builders  of 
violins  had  ever  had  wire  strings  in  view,  they 
would  have  built  their  fiddles  in  accordance, 
and  they  would  not  be  the  same  we  now  possess. 
First  of  all  there  are  scientific  reasons  against 
using  the  wire  strings.  They  change  the  tone 
of  the  instrument.  The  rigidity  of  tension  of 
the  wire  E  string  where  it  crosses  the  bridge 
tightens  up  the  sound  of  the  lower  strings. 
Their  advantages  are:  reliability  under  ad- 
verse climatic  conditions  and  the  incontestable 
fact  that  they  make  things  easier  technically. 
They  facilitate  purity  of  intonation.  Yet  I 
am  willing  to  forgo  these  advantages  when  I 
consider  the  wonderful  pliability  of  the  gut 


158  Violin  Mastery 

strings  for  which  Stradivarius  built  his  violins. 
I  can  see  the  artistic  retrogression  of  those  wlio 
are  using  the  wire  E,  for  when  materially 
things  are  made  easier,  spiritually  there  is  a 
loss. 

CHIN  RESTS 

"And  while  we  are  discussing  the  physical 
aspects  of  the  instrument  there  is  the  'chin 
rest.'  None  of  the  great  violin  makers  ever 
made  a  'chin  rest.'  Increasing  technical  de- 
mands, sudden  pyrotechnical  flights  into  the 
higher  octaves  brought  the  'chin  rest'  into  be- 
ing. The  'chin  rest'  was  meant  to  give  the 
player  a  better  grasp  of  his  instrument.  I  ab- 
solutely disapprove,  in  theory,  of  chin  rest, 
cushion  or  pad.  Technical  reasons  may  be  ad- 
duced to  justify  their  use,  never  artistic  ones. 
I  admit  that  progress  in  violin  study  is  in- 
finitely slower  without  the  use  of  the  pad ;  but 
the  more  close  and  direct  a  contact  with  his 
instrument  the  player  can  develop,  the  more 
intimately  expressive  his  playing  becomes. 
Students  with  long  necks  and  thin  bodies  claim 
they  have  to  use  a  'chin  rest,'  but  tlie  study  of 
physical  adjustments  could  bring  about  a  bet- 
ter coordination  between  them  and  the  instru- 
ment.   A  thin  pad  may  be  used  without  much 


David  Mamies  159 

danger,  yet  I  feel  that  the  thicker  and  higher 
the  'chin  rest'  the  gi-eater  the  loss  in  expres- 
sive rendering.  The  more  we  accustom  our- 
selves to  mechanical  aids,  the  more  we  will 
come  to  rely  on  them.  .  .  .  But  the  question 
you  ask  anent  'Violin  INIastery'  leads  alto- 
gether away  from  the  material! 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"To  me  it  signifies  technical  efficiency 
coupled  with  poetic  insight,  freedom  from  con- 
ventionally accepted  standards,  the  attainment 
of  a  more  varied  personal  expression  along  in- 
dividual lines.  It  may  be  realized,  of  course, 
only  to  a  degree,  since  the  possessor  of  abso- 
lute 'Violin  ^Mastery'  would  be  forever  glori- 
fied. As  it  is  the  violin  master,  as  I  conceive 
him,  represents  the  embodier  of  the  greatest 
intimacy  between  himself,  the  artist,  and  his 
medium  of  expression.  Considered  in  this  light 
Pablo  Casals  and  his  'cello,  perhaps,  most 
closely  comply  with  the  requirements  of  the 
definition.  And  this  is  not  as  paradoxical  as 
it  may  seem,  since  all  string  instruments  are 
brethren,  descended  from  the  ancient  viol,  and 
the  'cello  is,  after  all,  a  variant  of  the  violin!" 


XIV 

TIVADAR  NACHEZ 

JOACHIM  AND  LEONARD  AS  TEACHERS 

TiVADAR  Nachez,  the  celebrated  violin 
virtuoso,  is  better  known  as  a  concertizing 
artist  in  Europe,  where  he  has  played  with  all 
the  leading  symphonic  orchestras,  than  in  this 
country,  to  which  he  paid  his  first  visit  dur- 
ing these  times  of  war,  and  which  he  was  about 
to  leave  for  his  London  home  when  the  writer 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him.  Yet,  though 
he  has  not  appeared  in  public  in  this  country 
(if  we  except  some  Red  Cross  concerts  in  Cali- 
fornia, at  which  he  gave  his  auditors  of  his 
best  to  further  our  noblest  war  charity),  his^ 
name  is  familiar  to  every  violinist.  For  is  not 
Mr.  Nachez  the  composer  of  the  "Gj'^psy 
Dances"  for  violin  and  piano,  which  have  made 
him  famous? 

Genuinely  musical,  effective  and  largely  suc- 
cessful as  they  have  been,  however,  as  any  one 
who  has  played  them  can  testify,  the  composer 

160 


TlVADAR    NaCHEZ 


^'^,  /**M^  /fre' 


Tivadar  Nachez  161 

of  the  "Gypsy  Dances"  regards  them  with 
mixed  feelings.  "I  have  done  other  work  that 
seems  to  me,  relatively,  much  more  important," 
said  Mr.  Nachez,  "but  when  my  name  happens 
to  be  mentioned,  echo  always  answers  'Gypsy 
Dances,'  my  little  rubbishy  'Gypsy  Dances!' 
It  is  not  quite  fair.  I  have  published  thirty- 
five  works,  among  them  a  'Requiem  Mass,' 
an  orchestral  overture,  two  violin  concertos, 
three  rhapsodies  for  violin  and  orchestra,  vari- 
ations on  a  Swiss  theme,  Romances,  a  Polo- 
naise (dedicated  to  Ysaye),  and  Evening 
Song,  three  Poemes  hongrois,  twelve  classical 
master  works  of  the  17th  century — to  say  noth- 
ing of  songs,  etc. — and  the  two  concertos  of 
Vivaldi  and  Nardini  which  I  have  edited,  prac- 
tically new  creations,  owing  to  the  addition  of 
the  piano  accompaniments  and  orchestral 
score.  I  wrote  the  'Gypsy  Dances'  as  a  mere 
boy  when  I  was  studying  with  H.  Leonard  in 
Paris,  and  really  at  his  suggestion.  In  one  of 
my  lessons  I  played  Sarasate's  'Spanish 
Dances,'  which  chanced  to  be  published  at  the 
time,  and  at  once  made  a  great  hit.  So  Leonard 
said  to  me:  'Why  not  write  some  Hungarian 
Gypsy  dances — there  must  be  wonderful  ma- 
terial at  hand  in  the  music  of  the  Tziganes  of 
Hungary.    You  should  do  something  with  it!' 


162  Violin  Mastery 

I  took  him  at  his  word,  and  he  liked  my 
'Dances'  so  well  that  he  made  me  play  them  at 
his  musical  evenings,  which  he  gave  often  dur- 
ing the  winter,  and  which  were  always  attended 
by  the  musical  Tout  Paris!  I  may  say  that 
during  these  last  thirty  years  there  has  been 
scarcely  a  violinist  before  the  public  who  at 
one  time  or  the  other  has  not  played  these 
'Gypsy  Dances.'  Besides  the  original  edition, 
there  are  two  (pirated!)  editions  in  America 
and  six  in  Europe. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  VIOLINISTIC  CAKEERI 
PLAYING  WITH   LISZT 

*'No,  Leonard  was  not  my  first  teacher.  I 
took  up  violin  work  when  a  boy  of  five  years 
of  age,  and  for  seven  years  practiced  from 
eight  to  ten  hours  a  day,  studying  with  Sa- 
bathiel,  the  leader  of  the  Royal  Orchestra  in 
Budapest,  where  I  was  born,  though  Eng- 
land, the  land  of  my  adoption,  in  which  I  have 
lived  these  last  twenty-six  years,  is  the  land 
where  I  have  found  all  my  happiness,  and 
much  gratifying  honor,  and  of  which  I  have 
been  a  devoted,  ardent  and  loyal  naturalized 
citizen  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
Sabathiel  was  an  excellent  routine  teacher,  and 


Tivadar  Nachez 


grounded  me  well  in  the  fundamentals — good 
tone  production  and  technical  control.  Later 
I  had  far  greater  teachers,  and  they  taught  me 
much,  but — in  the  last  analysis,  most  of  the 
little  I  have  achieved  1  owe  to  myself,  to  hard, 
untiring  work :  I  had  determined  to  be  a  violin- 
ist and  I  trust  I  became  one.  No  serious 
student  of  the  instrument  should  ever  forget 
that,  no  matter  who  his  teacher  may  be,  he 
himself  must  supply  the  determination,  the 
continued  energy  and  devotion  which  will  lead 
him  to  success. 

"Playing  with  Liszt — he  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  my  father — is  my  most  precious  musi- 
cal recollection  of  Budapest.  I  enjoyed  it  a 
great  deal  more  than  my  regular  lesson  work. 
He  would  condescend  to  play  with  me  some 
evenings  and  you  can  imagine  what  rare  musi- 
cal enjoyment,  what  happiness  there  was  in 
playing  with  such  a  genius !  I  was  still  a  boy 
when  with  him  I  played  the  Grieg  F  major 
sonata,  which  had  just  come  fresh  from  the 
press.  He  played  wifli  me  ihe.  D  minor  sonata 
of  Schumann  and  introduced  me  to  the  mystic 
beauties  of  the  Beethoven  sonatas.  I  can  still 
recall  how  in  the  Beethoven  C  minor  sonata,  in 
the  first  movement,  Liszt  would  bring  out  a 
certain  broken  chromatic  passage  in  the  left 


164  Violin  Mastery 

hand,  with  a  mighty  crescendo,  an  effect  of 
melodious  thunder,  of  enormous  depth  of  tone, 
and  yet  with  the  most  exquisite  regard  for  the 
balance  between  the  violin  and  his  own  instru- 
ment. And  there  was  not  a  trace  of  con- 
descension in  his  attitude  toward  me;  but  al- 
ways encouragement,  a  tender  affectionate  and 
paternal  interest  in  a  young  boy,  who  at  that 
moment  was  a  brother  artist. 

"Through  Liszt  I  came  to  know  the  great 
men  of  Hungarian  music  of  that  time :  Erkel, 
Hans  Richter,  Robert  Volkmann,  Count 
Geza  Zichy,  and  eventually  I  secured  a  scholar- 
ship, which  the  King  had  founded  for  music, 
to  stud}'^  with  Joachim  in  Berlin,  where  I  re- 
mained nearly  three  years.  Hubay  was  my 
companion  there;  but  afterward  we  separated, 
he  going  to  Vieuxtemps,  while  I  went  to 
Leonard. 

JOACHIM  AS  A  TEACHER  AND  INTERPRETER 

"Joachim  was,  perhaps,  the  most  celebrated 
teacher  of  his  time.  Yet  it  is  one  of  the  great- 
est ironies  of  fate  that  when  he  died  there  was 
not  one  of  his  pupils  who  was  considered  by 
the  German  authorities  'great'  enough  to  take 
the  place  the  Master  had  held.  Henri  Marteau, 


Tivadar  Nachez  165 


who  was  not  his  pupil,  and  did  not  even  ex- 
empHfy  his  stjde  in  playing,  was  chosen  to 
succeed  him !  Henri  Petri,  a  Vieuxtemps  pupil 
who  went  to  Joachim,  played  just  as  well  when 
he  came  to  him  as  when  he  left  him.  The  same 
might  be  said  of  Willy  Burmester,  Hess,  Kes 
and  Halir,  the  latter  one  of  those  Bohemian 
artists  who  had  a  tremendous  'Kubelik-like* 
execution.  Teaching  is  and  always  will  be  a 
special  gift.  There  are  many  minor  artists 
who  are  wonderful  'teachers,'  and  vice  versa! 
"Yet  if  Joachim  may  be  criticized  as  regards 
the  way  of  imparting  the  secrets  of  technical 
phases  in  his  violin  teaching,  as  a  teacher  of 
interpretation  he  was  incomparable!  As  an 
interpreter  of  Beethoven  and  of  Bach  in  par- 
ticular, there  has  never  been  any  one  to  equal 
Joachim.  Yet  he  never  played  the  same  Bach 
composition  twice  in  the  same  way.  We  were 
four  in  our  class,  and  Hubay  and  I  used  to 
bring  our  copies  of  the  sonatas  with  us,  to 
make  marginal  notes  while  Joachim  played  to 
us,  and  these  instantaneous  musical  'snapshots* 
remain  very  interesting.  But  no  matter  how 
Joachim  played  Bach,  it  was  always  with  a  big 
tone,  broad  chords  of  an  organ-like  effect. 
There  is  no  greater  discrepancy  than  the  edi- 
tion of  the  Bach  sonatas  published  (since  his 


166  Violin  Mastery 

death )  by  Moser,  and  which  is  supposed  to  em- 
body Joachim's  interpretation.  Sweeping^ 
chords,  which  Joachim  always  played  with  the 
utmost  breadth,  are  'arpeggiated'  in  Moser's 
edition!  Why,  if  any  of  his  pupils  had  ever 
attempted  to  play,  for  instance,  the  end  of  the 
Bouree  in  the  B  minor  Partita  of  Bach  a  la 
Moser,  Joachim  would  have  broken  his  bow 
over  their  heads! 

STUDYING  WITH  LEONARD 

"After  three  years'  study  I  left  Joachim 
and  went  to  Paris.  Liszt  had  given  me  letters  of 
introduction  to  various  French  artists,  among 
them  Saint-Saens.  One  evening  I  happened 
to  hear  Leonard  play  Corelli's  La  Folia  in  the 
Salle  Pleyel,  and  the  liquid  clarity  and  beauty 
of  his  tone  so  impressed  me  that  I  decided  I 
must  study  with  him.  I  played  for  him  and 
he  accepted  me  as  a  pupil.  I  am  free  to  admit 
that  my  tone,  which  people  seem  to  be  pleased 
to  praise  especially,  I  owe  entirely  to  Leonard, 
for  when  I  came  to  him  I  had  the  so-called 
'German  tone'  (son  allemand),  of  a  harsh, 
rasping  quality,  which  I  tried  to  abandon  ab- 
solutely. Leonard  often  would  point  to  his 
ears  while  teaching  and  say :  'Ouvrez  vos  oreiU 


Tivadar  Nachez  167 

les:  ecoutez  la  heaute  du  son!'  ('Open  your 
ears,  listen  for  beauty  of  sound!') .  Most  Joa- 
chim pupils  you  hear  (unless  they  have  re- 
formed )  attack  a  chord  with  the  nut  of  the  bow, 
the  German  method,  which  unduly  stresses  the 
attack.  Leonard,  on  the  contrary,  insisted  with 
his  pupils  on  the  attack  being  made  with  such 
smoothness  as  to  be  absolutely  unobtrusive. 
Being  a  nephew  of  Mme.  Malibran,  he  attached 
special  importance  to  the  'singing'  tone,  and 
advised  his  pupils  to  hear  great  singers,  to 
listen  to  them,  and  to  try  and  reproduce  their 
hel  canto  on  the  violin. 

"He  was  most  particular  in  his  observance 
of  every  nuance  of  shading  and  expression.  He 
told  me  that  when  he  played  Mendelssohn's 
concerto  (for  the  first  time)  at  the  Leipsic 
Gewandhaus,  at  a  rehearsal,  Mendelssohn  him- 
self conducting,  he  began  the  first  phrase  with 
a  full  mezzo-forte  tone.  Mendelssohn  laid  his 
hand  on  his  arm  and  said :  'But  it  begins  piano!' 
In  reply  Leonard  merely  pointed  with  his  bow 
to  the  score — the  p  which  is  now  indicated  in 
all  editions  had  been  omitted  by  some  printer's 
error,  and  he  had  been  quite  within  his  rights 
in  playing  mezzo-forte. 

"Leonard  paid  a  great  deal  of  attention 
to  scales  and  the  right  way  to  practice  them. 


168  Violin  Mastery 

He  would  say,  'II  faut  filer  les  sons:  c'est  Vart 
des  mmtres.'  ('One  must  spin  out  the  tone: 
that  is  the  art  of  the  masters.' )  He  taught  his 
pupils  to  play  the  scales  with  long,  steady 
bowings,  counting  sixt\^  to  each  bow.  Himself 
a  great  classical  violinist,  he  nevertheless  paid 
a  good  deal  of  attention  to  virtuoso  pieces ;  and 
always  tried  to  prepare  his  pupils  for  public 
life.  He  had  all  sorts  of  wise  hints  for  the 
budding  concert  artist,  and  was  in  the  habit 
of  saying:  'You  must  plan  a  program  as  you 
would  the  menu  of  a  dinner:  there  should  be 
something  for  every  one's  taste.  And,  espe- 
cially, if  you  are  playing  on  a  long  program, 
together  with  other  artists,  offer  nothing  in- 
digestible— let  your  number  be  a  relief!' 

SIVORI 

"While  studying  with  Leonard  I  met  Sivori, 
Paganini's  only  pupil  (if  vre  except  Catarina 
Caleagno),  for  whom  Paganini  wrote  a  con- 
certo and  six  short  sonatas.  Leonard  took  me 
to  see  him  late  one  evening  at  the  Hotel  de 
Ilavane  in  Paris,  where  Sivori  was  staying. 
When  we  came  to  his  room  we  heard  the  sound 
of  slow  scales,  beautifully  played,  coming  from 
behind  the  closed  door.     We  peered  through 


Tivadar  Nachez  169 

the  keyhole,  and  there  he  sat  on  his  bed  string- 
ing his  scale  tones  like  pearls.  He  was  a  lit- 
tle chap  and  had  the  tiniest  hands  I  have  ever 
seen.  Was  this  a  drawback?  If  so,  no  one 
could  tell  from  his  playing;  he  had  a  flawless 
technic,  and  a  really  pearly  quality  of  tone.  He 
was  very  jolly  and  amiable,  and  he  and  Leon- 
ard were  great  friends,  each  always  going  to 
hear  the  other  whenever  he  played  in  concert. 
My  four  years  in  Paris  were  in  the  main  years 
of  storm  and  stress — plain  living  and  hard, 
very  hard,  concentrated  work.  I  gave  some  ac- 
companying lessons  to  help  keep  things  going. 
When  I  left  Paris  I  went  to  London  and  then 
began  my  public  life  as  a  concert  violinist. 

GREAT  MOMENTS  IN  AN  ARTIST's  LIFE 

"What  is  the  happiest  remembrance  of  my 
career  as  a  virtuoso?  Some  of  the  great  mo- 
ments in  my  life  as  an  artist  ?  It  is  hard  to  say. 
Of  course  some  of  my  court  appearances  be- 
fore the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  are  dear 
to  me,  not  so  much  because  they  were  court 
appearances,  but  because  of  the  graciousness 
and  appreciation  of  the  highly  placed  person- 
ages for  whom  I  played. 

"Then,  what  I  count  a  signal  honor,  I  have 


170  Violin  Mastery 

played  no  less  than  three  times  as  a  solo  artist 
with  the  Royal  Philharmonic  Society  of  Lon- 
don, the  oldest  symphonic  society  in  Europe, 
for  whom  Beethoven  composed  his  immortal 
IXth  symphony  (once  under  Sir  Arthur  Sul- 
livan's baton;  once  imder  that  of  Sir  A.  C. 
Mackenzie,  and  once  with  Sir  Frederick 
Cowen  as  conductor — on  this  last  occasion  I 
was  asked  to  introduce  my  new  Second  con- 
certo in  B  minor.  Op.  36,  at  the  time  still  in 
ms.)  Then  there  is  quite  a  number  of  great 
conductors  with  whom  I  have  appeared,  a  few 
among  them  being  Liszt,  Rubinstein,  Brahms, 
Pasdeloup,  Sir  August  Manns,  Sir  Charles 
Halle,  L.  Mancinelli,  Weingartner  and  Hans 
Richter,  etc.  Perhaps,  as  a  violinist,  what  I 
like  best  to  recall  is  that  as  a  boy  I  was  in- 
vited, by  Richter  to  go  with  him  to  Bayreuth 
and  play  at  the  foundation  of  the  Bayreuth 
festival  theater,  which  howcA'^er  my  parents 
would  not  permit  owing  to  my  tender  age.  I 
also  remember  with  pleasure  an  episode  at 
the  famous  Pasdeloup  Concerts  in  the  Cirque 
d'hiver  in  Paris,  on  an  occasion  when  I  per- 
formed the  F  sharp  minor  concerto  of  Ernst. 
After  I  had  finished,  two  ladies  came  to  the 
green  room;  they  were  in  deep  mourning,  and, 
one  of  them  greatly  moved,  asked  me  to  'allow 


Tivadar  Nachez  171 

her  to  thank  me'  for  the  manner  in  which  I  had 
played  this  concerto — she  said:  'Z  am  the 
widow  of  Ernst!'  She  also  told  me  that  since 
his  death  she  had  never  heard  the  concerto 
played  as  I  had  played  it!  In  presenting  to 
me  her  companion,  the  Marquise  de  Gallifet 
(wife  of  the  General  de  Gallifet  who  led  the 
brigade  of  the  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  in  the 
heroic  charge  of  General  Margueritte's  cavalry 
division  at  Sedan,  M^hich  excited  the  admiration 
of  the  old  king  of  Prussia) ,  I  had  the  honor 
of  meeting  the  once  world  famous  violinist 
IMlle.  IMillanollo,  as  she  was  before  her  mar- 
riage. ]Mme.  Ernst  often  came  to  hear  me 
play  her  late  husband's  music,  and  as  a  part- 
ing gift  presented  me  with  his  beautiful 
'Tourte'  bow,  and  an  autographed  copy  of  the 
first  edition  of  Ernst's  transcription  for  solo 
violin  of  Schubert's  'Erlking.'  It  is  so  in- 
credibly difncult  to  play  with  proper  balance 
of  melody  and  accompaniment — I  never  heard 
any  one  but  Kubelik  play  it — ^that  it  is  almost 
impossible.  It  is  so  difficult,  in  fact,  that  it 
should  not  be  played! 

VIOLINS  AND  STRINGS :  SARASATE 

"My  violin?     I  am  a  Stradivarius  player, 
and  possess  two  fine  Strads,  though  I  also  have 


172  Violin  Mastery 

a  beautiful  Joseph  Guarnerius.  Ysaye,  Thi- 
baud  and  Caressa,  when  they  lunched  with  me 
not  long  ago,  were  enthusiastic  about  them. 
My  favorite  Strad  is  a  1716  instrument — I 
have  used  it  for  twenty-five  years.  But  I  can- 
not use  the  wire  strings  that  are  now  in  such 
vogue  here.  I  have  to  have  Italian  gut  strings. 
The  wire  E  cuts  my  fingers,  and  besides  I  no- 
tice a  perceptible  difference  in  sound  quality. 
Of  course,  wire  strings  are  practical;  they  do 
not  *snap'  on  the  concert  stage.  Speaking  of 
strings  that  'snap,'  reminds  me  that  the  first 
time  I  heard  Sarasate  play  the  Saint-Saens 
concerto,  at  Frankfort,  he  twice  forgot  his 
place  and  stopped.  They  brought  him  the 
music,  he  began  for  the  third  time  and  then — 
the  E  string  snapped!  I  do  not  think  any 
other  than  Sarasate  could  have  carried  off  these 
successive  mishaps  and  brought  his  concert  to 
a  triumphant  conclusion.  He  was  a  great 
friend  of  mine  and  one  of  the  most  perfect 
players  I  have  ever  known,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  greatest  grand  seigneurs  among  violinists. 
His  rendering  of  romantic  works,  Saint-Saens, 
Lalo,  Bruch,  was  exquisite — I  have  never, 
never  heard  them  played  as  beautifully.  On 
the  other  hand,  his  Bach  playing  was  excruciat- 
ing— he  played  Bach  sonatas  as  though  they 


Tivadar  Nachez  173 

were  virtuoso  pieces.  It  made  one  think  of 
Hans  von  Biilow's  mot  when,  in  speaking  of 
a  certain  famous  pianist,  he  said:  'He  plays 
Beethoven  with  velocity  and  Czerny  wath  ex- 
pression.' But  to  hear  Sarasate  play  roman- 
tic music,  his  own  'Spanish  Dances'  for  in- 
stance, was  all  like  glorious  hirdsong  and 
golden  sunshine,  a  lark  soaring  heavenwards! 

THE  NARDINI  CONCERTO  IN  A 

"You  ask  about  my  compositions?  Well, 
Eddy  Brown  is  going  to  play  my  Second  vio- 
lin concerto,  Op.  36  in  B  flat,  which  I  wrote 
for  the  London  Philharmonic  Society,  next 
season;  Elman  the  Nardini  concerto  in  A, 
which  M^as  published  only  shortly  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  Thirty  years  ago  I  found, 
by  chance,  three  old  Nardini  concertos  for 
violin  and  bass  in  the  composer's  original  ms., 
in  Bologna.  The  best  was  the  one  in  A — a 
beautiful  work!  But  the  bass  was  not  even 
figured,  and  the  task  of  reconstructing  the  ac- 
companiment for  piano,  as  well  as  for  orches- 
tra, and  reverently  doing  justice  to  the  com- 
poser's original  intent  and  idea;  while  at  the 
same  time  making  its  beauties  clearly  and  ex- 
pressively available  from  the  standpoint   of 


174  Violin  Mastery 

the  violinist  of  to-day,  was  not  easy.  Still, 
I  think  I  may  say  I  succeeded."  And  Mr. 
Nachez  showed  me  some  letters  from  famous 
contemporaries  who  had  made  the  acquaintance 
of  this  Nardini  concerto  in  A  major.  Auer, 
Thibaud,  Sir  Hubert  Parry  (who  said  that  he 
had  "infused  the  work  with  new  life"),  Pol- 
lak,  Switzerland's  ranking  fiddler,  Carl  Flesch, 
author  of  the  well-known  Urstudien — all  ex- 
pressed their  admiration.  One  we  cannot  for- 
bear quoting  a  letter  in  part.  It  was  from  Otto- 
kar  Sevcik.  The  great  Bohemian  pedagogue  is 
usually  regarded  as  the  apostle  of  mechanism 
in  violin  playing:  as  the  inventor  of  an  inex- 
orably logical  system  of  development,  which 
stresses  the  technical  at  the  expense  of  the 
musical.  The  following  lines  show  him  in 
quite  a  different  light : 

"I  would  not  be  surprised  if  Nardini,  Vivaldi  and 
their  companions  were  to  appear  to  you  at  the  midnight 
hour  in  order  to  thank  the  master  for  having  given  new 
life  to  their  works,  long  buried  beneath  the  mold  of 
figured  basses ;  works  whose  vital,  pulsating  possibilities 
these  old  gentlemen  probably  never  suspected.  Nardini 
emerges  from  your  alchemistic  musical  laboratory  with 
so  fresh  and  lively  a  quality  of  charm  that  starving 
fiddlers  will  greet  him  with  the  same  pleasure  with  which 
the  bee  greets  the  first  honeyed  blossom  of  spring." 


Tivadar  Nachez  175 


VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"And  now  you  want  my  definition  of  'Violin 
Mastery'?  To  me  the  whole  art  of  playing 
violin  is  contained  in  the  reverent  and  respect- 
ful interpretation  of  the  works  of  the  great 
masters.  I  consider  the  artist  only  their  mes- 
senger, singing  the  message  they  give  us.  And 
the  more  one  realizes  this,  the  greater  becomes 
one's  veneration  especially  for  Bach's  creative 
work.  For  twenty  years  I  never  failed  to  play 
the  Bach  solo  sonatas  for  violin  every  day  of 
my  life — a  violinist's  'daily  prayer'  in  its  truest 
sense!  Students  of  Bach  are  apt,  in  the  be- 
ginning, to  play,  say,  the  finale  of  the  G  minor 
sonata,  the  final  Allegro  of  the  A  minor 
sonata,  the  Gigue  of  the  B  minor,  or  the  Pre- 
ludio  of  the  E  major  sonata  like  a  mechanical 
exercise:  it  takes  constant  study  to  disclose 
their  intimate  harmonic  melodious  conception 
and  poetry!  One  should  always  remember 
that  technic  is,  after  all,  only  a  means.  It  must 
be  acquired  in  order  to  be  an  unliampered 
master  of  the  instrument,  as  a  medium  for  pre- 
senting the  thoughts  of  the  great  creators — but 
these  thoughts,  and  not  their  medium  of  ex- 
pression, are  the  chief  objects  of  the  true  and 


176  Violin  Mastery 

great  artist,  whose  aim  in  life  is  to  serve  his 
Art  humbly,  reverently  and  faithfully!  You 
remember  these  words: 

"  'In  the  very  torrent,  tempest,  and,  as  I 
may  say,  the  whirlwind  of  passion,  you  must 
acquire  and  beget  a  temperance  that  may  give 
it  smoothness.  Oh,  it  offends  me  to  the  soul  to 
hear  a  robustious,  periwig-pated  fellow  tear  a 
passion  to  tatters,  to  very  rags,  to  split  the 
ears  of  the  groundlings,  who  for  the  most  part 
are  capable  of  nothing  but  inexplicable  dumb- 
shows  and  noise !...'" 


XV 

MAXIMILIAN  PILZER 

THE  SINGING  TONE  AND  THE  VIBRATO 

Maximilian  Pilzer  is  deservedly  promi- 
nent among  younger  American  concert  violin- 
ists. A  pupil  of  Joachim,  Shradieck,  Gustav 
Hollander,  he  is,  as  it  has  alreadj^  been  pic- 
turesquely put,  "a  graduate  of  the  rock  and 
thorn  university,"  an  artist  who  owes  his  suc- 
cess mainly  to  his  own  natural  gifts  plus  an  in- 
finite capacity  for  taking  pains.  Though 
primarily  an  interpreter  his  interlocutor  yet 
had  the  good  fortune  to  happen  on  INIr.  Pilzer 
when  he  was  giving  a  lesson.  Essentially  a 
solo  violinist,  INIr.  Pilzer  nevertheless  has  the 
born  teacher's  wish  to  impart,  to  share,  where 
talent  justifies  it,  his  own  knowledge.  He  him- 
self did  not  have  to  tell  the  listener  this — the 
lesson  he  was  giving  betrayed  the  fact. 

It  was  Kreisler's  Tambourin  Chinois  that 
the  student  played.  And  as  Mr.  Pilzer  il- 
lustrated  the   delicate   shades   of  nuance,   of 

177 


178  Violin  Mastery 

phrasing,  of  bowing,  with  instant  rebuke  for 
an  occasional  lack  of  "warmth"  in  tone,  the 
improvement  was  instantaneous  and  unmis- 
takable.   The  lesson  over,  he  said : 

THE  SINGING  TONE 

"The  singing  tone  is  the  ideal  one,  it  is  the 
natural  violin  tone.  Too  many  violin  students 
have  the  technical  bee  in  their  bonnet  and  neg- 
lect it.  And  too  many  believe  that  speed  is 
brilliancy.  When  they  see  the  black  notes  they 
take  for  granted  that  they  must  'run  to  beat 
the  band.'  Yet  often  it  is  the  teacher's  fault  if 
a  good  singing  tone  is  not  developed.  Where 
the  teacher's  playing  is  cold,  that  of  the  pupil 
is  apt  to  be  the  same.  Warmth,  rounded  full- 
ness, the  truly  beautiful  violin  tone  is  more  dif- 
ficult to  call  forth  than  is  generally  supposed. 
And,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  the  soul  of  this 
tone  quality  is  the  vibrato,  though  the  indi- 
vidual instrument  also  has  much  to  do  with 
the  tone. 

THE  VIBRATO 

"But  not,"  Mr.  Pilzer  continued,  "not  as  it 
is  too  often  mistakenly  employed.  Of  course, 
any  trained  player  will  draw  his  bow  across 


Maximilian  Pilzer  179 

the  strings  in  a  smooth,  even  way,  but  that  is 
not  enough.  There  must  be  an  inner,  emotional 
instinct,  an  electric  spark  within  the  player 
himself  that  sets  the  vibrato  current  in  mo- 
tion. It  is  an  inner,  psychic  vibration  which 
should  be  reflected  by  the  intense,  rapid  vibra- 
tion in  the  fingers  of  the  left  hand  on  the 
strings  in  order  to  give  fluent  expression  to 
emotion.  The  vibrato  can  not  be  used, 
naturally,  on  the  open  strings,  but  otherwise  ii^ 
represents  the  true  means  for  securing  warmth 
of  expression.  Of  course,  some  decry  the  vi- 
brato— but  the  reason  is  often  because  the  vi- 
brato is  too  slow.  One  need  only  listen  to 
Ysaye,  Elman,  Kreisler:  artists  such  as  these 
employ  the  quick,  intense  vibrato  with  ideal 
effect.  An  exaggerated  vibrato  is  as  bad  as 
what  I  call  'the  sentimental  slide,'  a  common 
fault,  which  many  violinists  cultivate  under  the 
impression  that  they  are  playing  expressively. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY  AND  ITS  ATTAINMENT 

"Violin  mastery  expresses  more  or  less  the 
aspiration  to  realize  an  ideal.  It  is  a  hope,  a 
prayer,  rather  than  an  actual  fact,  since  noth- 
ing human  is  absolutely  perfect.  Ysaye,  per- 
haps, with  his  golden  tone,  comes  nearest  to 


180  Violin  Mastery 

my  idea  of  what  violin  mastery  should  be,  both 
as  regards  breadth  and  delicacy  of  interpre- 
tation. And  guide-posts  along  the  long  road 
that  leads  to  mastery  of  the  instrument?  In- 
dividuality in  teaching,  progress  along  natural 
lines,  surety  in  bowing,  a  tone-production  with- 
out forcing,  cultivating  a  sense  of  rhythm  and 
accent.  I  always  remember  what  IMoser  once 
wrote  in  my  autograph  album:  'Rhythm  and 
accent  are  the  soul  of  music !' 


THE   SHINING  GOAL 

"And  what  a  shining  goal  is  waiting  to  be 
reached!  The  correct  interpretation  of  Bach, 
Haendel  and  the  old  Italian  and  French  clas- 
sics, and  of  the  vast  realm  of  ensemble  music 
under  which  head  come  the  Mozart  and  Bee- 
thoven violin  sonatas,  and  those  of  their  suc- 
cessors, Schumann,  Brahms,  etc.  And  aside 
from  the  classics,  the  moderns.  And  then 
there  are  the  great  violin  concertos,  in  a  class 
by  themselves.  They  represent,  in  a  degree, 
the  utmost  that  the  composer  has  done  for  the 
interpreting  artist.  Yet  they  differ  absolutely 
in  manner,  style,  thought,  etc.  Take  Joachim's 
own  Hungarian  concerto,  which  I  played  for 
the  composer,  of  which  I  still  treasure  the 


Maxiinilian  Pilzer  181 

recollection  of  his  patting  me  on  the  shoulder 
and  saying:  'There  is  nothing  for  me  to  cor- 
rect!' It  is  a  work  deliberately  designed  for 
technical  display,  and  is  tremendously  difficult. 
But  the  wonderful  Brahms  concerto,  those 
of  Beethoven  and  ^lax  Bruch ;  of  Mozart  and 
Mendelssohn — it  is  hard  to  express  a  prefer- 
ence for  works  so  different  in  the  quality  of 
their  beauty.  The  Russian  Conus  has  a  fine 
concerto  in  E,  and  Sinding  a  most  effective 
one  in  A  major.  Edmund  Severn,  the  Ameri- 
can composer  and  violinist,  has  also  written  a 
notably  fine  violin  concerto  which  I  have  played 
with  the  Philharmonic,  one  that  ought  to  be 
heard  oftener. 

PLAYING  BACH 

"Bach  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  the  great 
masters  to  interpret  on  the  violin.  His  poly- 
phonic style  and  interweaving  themes  demand 
close  study  in  order  to  make  the  meaning  clear. 
In  the  Bach  CJmconne,  for  instance,  some  very 
great  violinists  do  not  pay  enough  attention  to 
making  a  distinction  between  principal  and 
secondary  notes  of  a  chord.  Here  [Mr.  Pilzer 
took  up  a  new  Strad  he  has  recently  acquired 
and  illustrated  his  meaning]  in  this  four-note 


182  Violin  Mastery 

chord  there  is  one  important  melody  note 
which  must  stand  out.  And  it  can  be  done, 
though  not  without  some  study.  Bach  abounds 
in  such  pitfalls,  and  in  studying  him  the  closest^ 
attention  is  necessary.  Once  the  problems  in- 
volved overcome,  his  music  gains  its  true 
clarity  and  beauty  and  the  enjoyment  of  artist 
and  listener  is  doubled. 


XVI 

MAUD  POWELL 

TECHNICAL   DIFFICULTIES:   SOME   HINTS 
FOR  THE  CONCERT  PLAYER 

Maud  Powell  is  often  alluded  to  as  our 
representative  "American  "woman  violinist" 
which,  while  true  in  a  narrower  sense,  is  not  al- 
together just  in  a  broader  way.  It  would  be 
decidedly  more  fair  to  consider  her  a  repre- 
sentative American  violinist,  without  stressing 
the  term  "woman";  for  as  regards  Art  in  its 
higher  sense,  the  artist  comes  first,  sex  being 
incidental,  and  Maud  Powell  is  first  and  fore- 
most— an  artist.  And  her  infinite  capacity  for 
taking  pains,  her  willingness  to  work  hard 
have  had  no  small  part  in  the  position  she 
has  made  for  herself,  and  the  success  she  has 
achieved. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  CONCERT  VIOLINIST 

"Too  many  Americans  who  take  up  the 
violin  professionally,"  ]Maud  Powell  told  the 

183 


184  Violin  Mastery 

writer,  "do  not  realize  that  the  mastery  of  the 
instrument  is  a  life  study,  that  without  hard, 
concentrated  work  they  cannot  reach  the  higher 
levels  of  their  art.  Then,  too,  they  are  too 
often  inchned  to  think  that  if  they  have  a  good 
tone  and  technic  that  this  is  all  they  need.  They 
forget  that  the  musical  instinct  must  he  cul- 
tivated ;  they  do  not  attach  enough  importance 
to  musical  surroundings :  to  hearing  and  under- 
standing music  of  every  kind,  not  only  that 
written  for  the  violin.  They  do  not  realize 
the  value  of  ensemble  work  and  its  influence 
as  an  educational  factor  of  the  greatest  artistic 
value.  I  remember  when  I  was  a  girl  of  eight, 
my  mother  used  to  play  the  Mozart  violin 
sonatas  with  me;  I  heard  all  the  music  I  pos- 
sibly could  hear;  I  was  taught  harmony  and 
musical  form  in  direct  connection  with  my 
practical  work,  so  that  theory  was  a  living 
thing  to  me  and  no  abstraction.  In  my  home 
town  I  played  in  an  orchestra  of  twenty  pieces 
— Oh,  no,  not  a  'ladies  orchestra' — the  other 
members  were  men  grown!  I  played  chamber 
music  as  well  as  solos  whenever  the  oppor- 
tunity offered,  at  home  and  in  public.  In  fact 
music  was  part  of  my  life. 

"No  student  who  looks  on  music  primarily 
as  a  thing  apart  in  his  existence,  as  a  bread-win- 


Maud  Powell 


Maud  Powell  185 

ning  tool,  as  a  craft  rather  than  an  art,  can 
ever  mount  to  the  high  places.  So  often  girls 
[who  sometimes  lack  the  practical  vision  of 
boys] ,  although  having  studied  but  a  few  years, 
come  to  me  and  say:  'My  one  ambition  is  to 
become  a  great  virtuoso  on  the  violin !  I  want 
to  begin  to  study  the  great  concertos !'  And  I 
have  to  tell  them  that  their  first  ambition 
should  be  to  become  musicians — to  study,  to 
know,  to  understand  music  before  they  ven- 
ture on  its  interpretation.  Virtuosity  without 
musicianship  will  not  carry  one  far  these  days. 
In  many  cases  these  students  come  from  small 
inland  towns,  far  from  any  music  center,  and 
have  a  wrong  attitude  of  mind.  They  crave 
the  glamor  of  footlights,  flow^ers  and  applause, 
not  realizing  that  music  is  a  speech,  an  idiom, 
which  they  must  master  in  order  to  interpret 
the  works  of  the  great  composers. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TEACHER 

"Of  course,  all  artistic  playing  represents  es- 
sentially the  mental  control  of  technical  means. 
But  to  acquire  the  latter  in  the  right  w^ay,  while 
at  the  same  time  developing  the  former,  calls 
for  the  best  of  teachers.  The  problem  of  the 
teacher  is  to  prevent  his  pupils  from  being  too 


186  Violin  Master^/ 

imitative — all  students  are  natural  imitators — 
and  furthering  the  quality  of  musical  imagina- 
tion in  them.  Pupils  generally  have  something 
of  the  teacher's  tone — Auer  pupils  have  the 
Auer  tone,  Joachim  pupils  have  a  Joachim 
tone,  an  excellent  thing.  But  as  each  pupil 
has  an  individuality  of  his  ov^i^n,  he  should  never 
sink  it  altogether  in  that  of  his  teacher.  It  is 
this  imitative  trend  which  often  makes  it  hard 
to  judge  a  young  player's  work.  I  was  very 
fortunate  in  my  teachers.  William  Lewis  of 
Chicago  gave  me  a  splendid  start.  Then  Ij 
studied  in  turn  with  Schradieck  in  Leipsic — 
Schradieck  himself  was  a  pupil  of  Ferdinand 
David  and  of  Leonard — Joachim  in  Berlin, 
and  Charles  Dancla  in  Paris.  I  might  say  that 
I  owe  most,  in  a  way,  to  William  Lewis,  a  born 
fiddler.  Of  my  three  European  masters 
Dancla  was  unquestionably  the  greatest  as  a 
teacher — of  course  I  am  speaking  for  myself. 
It  was  no  doubt  an  advantage,  a  decided  ad- 
vantage for  me  in  my  artistic  development, 
which  was  slow — a  family  trait — to  enjoy  thcj 
broadening  experience  of  three  entirely  dif- 
ferent styles  of  teaching,  and  to  be  able  to  as- 
similate the  best  of  each.  Yet  Joachim  was  a 
far  greater  violinist  than  teacher.  His  method 
was  a  cramping  one,  owing  to  his  insistence  on 


Maud  Powell  187 

pouring  all  his  pupils  into  the  same  mold,  so 
to  speak,  of  forming  them  all  on  the  Joachim 
lathe.  But  Dancla  was  inspiring.  He  taught 
me  De  Beriot's  wonderful  method  of  attack; 
he  showed  me  how  to  develop  purity  of  style. 
Dancla's  method  of  teaching  gave  his  pupils  a 
technical  equipment  which  carried  bowing 
right  along,  'neck  and  neck'  with  the  finger 
work  of  the  left  hand,  while  the  Germans  are 
apt  to  stress  finger  development  at  the  expens^ 
of  the  bow.  And  without  ever  neglecting  tech- 
nical means,  Dancla  always  put  the  purely 
musical  before  the  purely  virtuoso  side  of  play- 
ing. And  this  is  always  a  sign  of  a  good  teacher. 
He  was  unsparing  in  taking  pains  and  very 
fair. 

"I  remember  that  I  was  passed  first  in  a 
class  of  eighty-four  at  an  examination,  after 
only  three  private  lessons  in  which  to  prepare 
the  concerto  movement  to  be  played.     I  was 

surprised  and  asked  him  why  Mile. who, 

it  seemed  to  me,  had  played  better  than  I,  had 

not  passed.    'Ah,'  he  said,  'Mile. studied 

that  movement  for  six  months ;  and  in  compari- 
son, you,  with  only  three  lessons,  play  it  bet- 
ter!' Dancla  switched  me  right  over  in  his 
teaching  from  German  to  French  methods,  and 
taught  me  how  to  become  an  artist,  just  as  I 


188  Violin  Mastery 

had  learned  in  Germany  to  become  a  musician. 
The  Fr^ch  school  has  taste,  elegance,  imag- 
ination; the  German  is  more  conservative, 
serious,  and  has,  perhaps,  more  depth. 

TECHNICAL  DIFFICULTIES 

"Perhaps  it  is  because  I  belong  to  an  older 
school,  or  it  may  be  because  I  laid  stress  on 
technic  because  of  its  necessity  as  a  means  of 
expression — at  any  rate  I  worked  hard  at  it. 
Naturally,  one  should  never  practice  any  tech- 
nical difficulty  too  long  at  a  stretch.  Young 
players  sometimes  forget  this.  I  know  that 
staccato  playing  was  not  easy  for  me  at  one 
time.  I  believe  a  real  staccato  is  inborn;  a 
knack.  1^  used  to  grumble  about  it  to  Joachim 
and  he  told  me  once  that  musically  staccato 
did  not  have  much  value.  His  own,  by  the 
way,  was  very  labored  and  heavy.  He  admitted 
that  he  had  none.  Wieniawski  had  such  a 
wonderful  staccato  that  one  finds  much  of  it 
in  his  music.  When  I  first  began  to  play  his  D 
minor  concerto  I  simply  made  up  my  mind  to 
get  a  staccato.  It  came  in  time,  by  sheer  force 
of  will.  After  that  I  had  no  trouble.  An  ar- 
tistic staccato  should,  like  the  trill,  be  plastic 
and  under  control ;  for  different  schools  of  com- 


Maud  Powell  189 

position  demand  different  styles  of  treatment 
of  such  details. 

"Octaves — the  unison,  not  broken — I  did 
not  find  difficult ;  but  though  they  are  supposed 
to  add  volume  of  tone  they  sound  hideous  to 
me.  I  have  used  them  in  certain  passages  of 
my  arrangement  of  'Deep  River,'  but  when  I 
heard  them  played,  promised  myself  I  would 
never  repeat  the  experiment.  Wilhelmj  has 
committed  even  a  worse  crime  in  taste  by  put- 
ting six  long  bars  of  Schubert's  lovely  Ave 
Maria  in  octaves.  Of  course  they  represent 
skill;  but  I  think  they  are  only  justified  in 
show  pieces.  Harmonics  I  always  found  easy ; 
though  whether  they  ring  out  as  they  should 
always  depends  more  or  less  on  atmospheric 
conditions,  the  strings  and  the  amount  of  rosin 
on  the  bow.  On  the  concert  stage  if  the  player 
stands  in  a  draught  the  harmonics  are  some- 
times husky. 

THE  AMERICAN   WOMAN   VIOLINIST  AND 
AMERICAN   MUSIC 

"The  old  days  of  virtuoso  'tricks'  have  passed 
— I  should  like  to  hope  forever.  Not  that 
some  of  the  old  type  virtuosos  were  not  fine 
players.    Remenyi  played  beautifully.    So  did 


190  Violin  Mastery 

Ole  Bull.  I  remember  one  favorite  trick  of 
the  latter's,  for  instance,  which  would  hardly 
pass  muster  to-day.  I  have  seen  him  draw  out 
a  long  pp,  the  audience  listening  breathlessly, 
while  he  drew  his  bow  way  beyond  the  string, 
and  then  looked  innocently  at  the  point  of  the 
bow,  as  though  wondering  where  the  tone  had 
vanished.  It  invariably  brought  down  the 
house. 

"Yet  an  artist  must  be  a  virtuoso  in  the 
modern  sense  to  do  his  full  duty.  And  here  in 
America  that  duty  is  to  help  those  who  are 
groping  for  something  higher  and  better 
musically;  to  help  without  rebuffing  them. 
When  I  first  began  my  career  as  a  concert 
violinist  I  did  pioneer  work  for  the  cause  of 
the  American  woman  violinist,  going  on  with 
the  work  begun  by  Mme.  Camilla  Urso.  A 
strong  prejudice  then  existed  against  women 
fiddlers,  which  even  yet  has  not  altogether  been 
overcome.  The  very  fact  that  a  Western  man- 
ager recently  told  Mr.  Turner  with  surprise 
that  he  'had  made  a  success  of  a  woman  artist' 
proves  it.  When  I  first  began  to  play  here  in 
concert  this  prejudice  was  much  stronger.  Yet 
I  kept  on  and  secured  engagements  to  play 
with  orchestra  at  a  time  when  they  were  dif- 
ficult to  obtain.     Theodore  Thomas  liked  my 


3Iaud  Powell  191 


playing  (he  said  I  had  brains) ,  and  it  was  with 
his  orchestra  that  I  introduced  the  concertos 
of  Saint-Saens  (C  min.),  Lalo  (F  min.),  and 
others,  to  American  audiences. 

"The  fact  that  I  reahzed  that  my  sex  was 
against  me  in  a  way  led  me  to  be  startlingly 
authoritative  and  convincing  in  the  masculine 
manner  when  I  first  played.  This  is  a  mistake 
no  woman  violinist  should  make.  And  from 
the  moment  that  James  Huneker  wrote  that 
I  'was  not  developing  the  feminine  side  of  my 
work,'  I  determined  to  be  just  myself,  and 
play  as  the  spirit  moved  me,  with  no  further 
thought  of  sex  or  sex  distinctions  which,  in  Art, 
after  all,  are  secondary.  I  never  realized  this 
more  forcibly  than  once,  when,  sitting  as  a 
judge,  I  listened  to  the  competitive  playing  of 
a  number  of  young  professional  violinists  and 
pianists.  The  individual  performers,  unseen 
by  the  judges,  played  in  turn  behind  a  screen. 
And  in  three  cases  my  fellow  judges  and  my- 
self guessed  wrongly  with  regard  to  the  sex 
of  the  players.  When  we  thought  we  had 
heard  a  young  man  play  it  happened  to  be  a 
young  woman,  and  vice  versa. 

"To  return  to  the  question  of  concert-work. 
You  must  not  think  that  I  have  played  only 
foreign  music  in  j)ublic.     I  have  always  be- 


192  Violin  Mastery 

lieved  in  American  composers  and  in  American 
composition,  and  as  an  American  have  tried 
to  do  justice  as  an  interpreting  artist  to  the 
music  of  my  native  land.  Aside  from  the  violin 
concertos  by  Harry  Rowe  Shelly  and  Henry 
Holden  Huss,  I  have  played  any  number  of 
shorter  original  compositions  by  such  repre- 
sentative American  composers  as  Arthur 
Foote,  Mrs.  H.  H.  A.  Beach,  Victor  Herbert, 
John  Philip  Sousa,  Arthur  Bird,  Edwin 
Grasse,  Marion  Bauer,  Cecil  Burleigh,  Harry 
Gilbert,  A.  Walter  Kramer,  Grace  White, 
Charles  Wakefield  Cadman  and  others.  Then, 
too,  I  have  presented  transcriptions  by  Arthur 
Hartmann,  Francis  Macmillan  and  Sol  Mar- 
cosson,  as  well  as  some  of  my  own.  Transcrip- 
tions are  wrong,  theoretically ;  yet  some  songs, 
like  Rimsky-Korsakov's  'Song  of  India'  and 
some  piano  pieces,  like  the  Dvorak  Hu- 
moresquCj  are  so  obviously  effective  on  the  vio- 
lin that  a  transcription  justifies  itself.  My 
latest  temptative  in  that  direction  is  my  'Four 
American  Folk  Songs,'  a  simple  setting  of 
four  well-known  airs  with  connecting  cadenzas 
— ^no  variations,  no  special  development!  I 
used  them  first  as  encores^  but  my  audiences 
seemed  to  like  them  so  well  that  I  have  played 
them  on  all  my  recent  programs. 


Maud  Powell  193 


SOME   HINTS  FOR  THE  CONCERT    PLAYER 

"The  very  first  thing  in  playing  in  public  is 
to  free  oneself  of  all  distrust  in  one's  own  pow- 
ers. To  do  this,  nothing  must  be  left  to  chance. 
One  should  not  have  to  give  a  thought  to 
strings,  bow,  etc.  All  should  be  in  proper  con- 
dition. Above  all  the  violinist  should  play  with 
an  accompanist  who  is  used  to  accompanying 
him.  It  seems  superfluous  to  emphasize  that 
one's  program  numbers  must  have  been  mas- 
tered in  every  detail.  Only  then  can  one  defy 
nervousness,  turning  excess  of  emotion  into 
inspiration. 

"Acoustics  play  a  greater  part  in  the  suc- 
cess of  a  public  concert  than  most  people  real- 
ize. In  some  halls  they  are  very  good,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Cleveland  Hippodrome,  an 
enormous  place  which  holds  forty-three  hun- 
dred people.  Here  the  acoustics  are  perfect, 
and  the  artist  has  those  wonderful  silences 
through  which  his  slightest  tones  carrj^  clearly 
and  sweetly.  I  have  played  not  onh"  solos,  but 
chamber  music  in  this  hall,  and  was  always 
sorry  to  stop  playing.  In  most  halls  the  acous- 
tic conditions  are  best  in  the  evening. 

"Then  there  is  the  matter  of  the  violin.  I 
first  used  a  Joseph  Guarnerius,  a  deeper  toned 


194  Violin  Mastery 

instrument  than  the  Jean  Baptista  Guadagnini 
I  have  now  played  for  a  number  of  years.  The 
Guarnerius  has  a  tone  that  seems  to  come  more 
from  within  the  instrument;  but  all  in  all  I 
have  found  my  Guadagnini,  with  its  glassy 
clearness,  its  brilliant  and  limpid  tone-quality, 
better  adapted  to  American  concert  halls.  If 
I  had  a  Strad  in  the  same  condition  as  my 
Guadagnini  the  instrument  would  be  priceless. 
I  regretted  giving  up  my  Guarnerius,  but  I 
could  not  play  the  two  violins  interchangeably ; 
for  they  were  absolutely  different  in  size  and 
tone-production,  shape,  etc.  Then  my  hand 
is  so  small  that  I  ought  to  use  the  instrument 
best  adapted  to  it,  and  to  use  the  same  instru- 
ment always.  Why  do  I  use  no  chin-rest?  I 
use  no  chin-rest  on  my  Guadagnini  simply  be- 
cause I  cannot  find  one  to  fit  my  chin.  One 
should  use  a  chin-rest  to  prevent  perspiration 
from  marring  the  varnish.  My  Rocca  violin 
is  an  interesting  instance  of  wood  worn  in 
ridges  by  the  stubble  on  a  man's  chin. 

"Strings?  Well,  I  use  a  wire  E  string.  I 
began  to  use  it  twelve  years  ago  one  humid, 
foggy  summer  in  Connecticut.  I  had  had  such 
trouble  with  strings  snapping  that  I  cried: 
'Give  me  anything  but  a  gut  string.'  The 
climate  practically  makes  metal  strings  a  neces- 


Maud  Powell  195 

sity,  though  some  kind  person  once  said  that  I 
bought  wire  strings  because  they  were  cheap! 
If  wire  strings  had  been  thought  of  when  Theo- 
dore Thomas  began  his  career,  he  might  never 
have  been  a  conductor,  for  he  told  me  he  gave 
up  the  violin  because  of  the  E  string.  And  most 
people  will  admit  that  hearing  a  wire  E  you 
cannot  tell  it  from  a  gut  E.  Of  course,  it  is  un- 
pleasant on  the  open  strings,  but  then  the  open 
strings  never  do  sound  well.  And  in  the  high- 
est registers  the  tone  does  not  spin  out  long 
enough  because  of  the  tremendous  tension: 
one  has  to  use  more  bow.  And  it  cuts  the  hairs : 
there,  is  a  little  surface  nap  on  the  bow-hairs 
which  a  wire  string  wears  right  out.  I  had  to 
have  my  four  bows  rehaired  three  times  last 
season — an  average  of  every  three  months.  But 
all  said  and  done  it  has  been  a  God-send  to  the 
violinist  who  plays  in  public.  On  the  wire  A 
one  cannot  get  the  harmonics;  and  the  alumi- 
num D  is  objectionable  in  soivg  violins,  though 
in  others  not  at  all. 

*'The  main  thing — no  matter  what  strings 
are  used — is  for  the  artist  to  get  his  audience 
into  the  concert  hall,  and  give  it  a  program 
which  is  properly  balanced.  Theodore  Thomas 
first  advised  me  to  include  in  my  programs 
short,  simple  things  that  my  listeners  could 


196  Violin  Master^ 

'get  hold  of — nothing  inartistic,  but  something 
selected  from  their  standpoint,  not  from  mine, 
and  played  as  artistically  as  possible.  Yet 
there  must  also  be  something  that  is  beyond 
them,  collectively.  Something  that  they  may 
need  to  hear  a  number  of  times  to  appreciate. 
This  enables  the  artist  to  maintain  his  dignity 
and  has  a  certain  psychological  effect  in  that 
his  audience  holds  him  in  greater  respect.  At 
big  conservatories  where  music  study  is  the 
most  important  thing,  and  in  large  cities, 
where  the  general  level  of  music  culture  is 
high,  a  big  solid  program  may  be  given,  where 
it  would  be  inappropriate  in  other  places. 

"Yet  I  remember  having  many  recalls  at  El 
Paso,  Texas,  once,  after  playing  the  first  move- 
ment of  the  Sibelius  concerto.  It  is  one  of 
those  compositions  which  if  played  too  literally 
leaves  an  audience  quite  cold;  it  must  be  ren- 
dered temperamentally,  the  big  climaxing  ef- 
fects built  up,  its  Northern  spirit  brought  out, 
though  I  admit  that  even  then  it  is  not  alto- 
gether easy  to  grasp. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  mastery  or  mastery  of  any  instru- 
ment, for  that  matter,  is  the  technical  power  to 


Mawd  Powell  197 

say  exactly  what  you  want  to  say  in  exactly 
the  way  you  want  to  say  it.  It  is  technical 
equipment  that  stands  at  the  service  of  your 
musical  will — a  faithful  and  competent  servant 
that  comes  at  your  musical  bidding.  If  your 
spirit  soars  'to  parts  unknown,'  your  well 
trained  servant  'technic'  is  ever  at  your  elbow 
to  prevent  irksome  details  from  hampering 
your  progress.  Mastery  of  your  instrument 
makes  mastery  of  your  Art  a  joy  instead  of  a 
burden.  Technic  should  always  be  the  hand- 
maid of  the  spirit. 

"And  I  believe  that  one  result  of  the  war 
will  be  to  bring  us  a  greater  self-knowledge, 
to  the  violinist  as  well  as  to  every  other  artist, 
a  broader  appreciation  of  what  he  can  do  to 
increase  and  elevate  appreciation  for  music 
in  general  and  his  Art  in  particular.  And  with 
these  I  am  sure  a  new  impetus  will  be  given 
to  the  development  of  a  musical  culture  truly 
American  in  thought  and  expression." 


XVII 

LEON  SAMETINI 

HARMONICS 

Leon  Sametini^  at  present  director  of  the 
dolin  department  of  the  Chicago  Music  Col- 
lege, where  Sauret,  Heermann  and  Sebald 
preceded  him,  is  one  of  the  most  successful 
teachers  of  his  instrument  in  this  country.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  he  has  not  played  in 
public  in  the  United  States  as  often  as  in 
Europe,  where  his  extensive  tournees  in  Hol- 
land— Leon  Sametini  is  a  Hollander  by  birth 
— Belgium,  England  and  Austria  have  estab- 
lished his  reputation  as  a  virtuoso,  and  the 
quality  of  his  playing  led  Ysaye  to  include  him 
in  a  quartet  of  artists  "in  order  of  lyric  ex- 
pression" with  himself  and  Thibaud.  Yet,  the 
fact  remains  that  this  erstwhile  protege  of 
Queen  Wilhelmina — she  gave  him  his  beautiful 
Santo  Serafin  (1730)  violin,  whose  golden 
varnish  back  "is  a  genuine  picture," — to  quote 
its    owner — is    a    distinguished    interpreting 

198 


Leon  Sametini  199 

artist  besides  having  a  real  teaching  gift,  which 
lends  additional  weight  to  his  educational 
views. 

REMINISCENCES  OF  SEvClK 

"I  began  to  study  violin  at  the  age  of  six, 
with  my  uncle.  From  him  I  went  to  Elder- 
ing  in  Amsterdam,  now  Willy  Hess's  succes- 
sor at  the  head  of  the  Cologne  Conservatory, 
and  then  spent  a  year  with  Sevcik  in  Prague. 
Yet — without  being  his  pupil — I  have  learned 
more  from  Ysaye  than  from  any  of  my  teach- 
ers. It  is  rather  the  custom  to  decry  Sevcik 
as  a  teacher,  to  dwell  on  his  absolutely  mechani- 
cal character  of  instruction — and  not  without 
justice.  First  of  all  Sevcik  laid  all  the  stres:^ 
on  the  left  hand  and  not  on  the  bow — an  ab- 
solute inversion  of  a  fundamental  principle. 
Eldering  had  taken  great  pains  with  my  bow 
technic,  for  he  himself  was  a  pupil  of  Hubay, 
who  had  studied  with  Vieuxtemps  and  had  his 
tradition.  But  Sevcik's  teaching  as  regards 
the  use  of  the  bow  was  very  poor ;  his  pupils — 
take  Kubelik  with  all  his  marvelous  finger 
facility — could  never  develop  a  big  bow  tech- 
nic. Their  plajnng  lacks  strength,  richness  of 
sound.  Sevcik  soon  noticed  that  my  bowing 
did  not  conform  to  his  theories;  vet  since  he 


200  Violin  Mastery 

could  not  legitimately  complain  of  the  results 
I  secured,  he  did  not  attempt  to  make  me 
change  it.  Musical  beauty,  interpretation,  in 
Sevcik's  case  were  all  subordinated  to  mechani- 
cal perfection.  With  him  the  study  of  some  in- 
spired masterpiece  was  purely  a  mathematical 
process,  a  problem  in  technic  and  mental  arith- 
metic, without  a  bit  of  spontaneity.  Ysaye 
used  to  roar  with  laughter  when  I  would  tell 
him  how,  when  a  boy  of  fifteen,  I  played  the 
Beethoven  concerto  for  Sevcik — a  work  which 
I  myself  felt  and  knew  it  was  then  out  of  the 
question  for  me  to  play  with  artistic  maturity 
— the  latter's  only  criticisms  on  my  perform- 
ance were  that  one  or  two  notes  were  a  little 
too  high,  and  a  certain  passage  not  quite  clear. 
"Sevcik  did  not  like  the  Dvorak  concerto 
and  never  gave  it  to  his  pupils.  But  I  lived 
next  door  to  Dvorak  at  Prague,  and  meeting 
him  in  the  street  one  day,  asked  him  some  ques- 
tions anent  its  interpretation,  with  the  result 
that  I  went  to  his  home  various  times  and  he 
gave  me  his  own  ideas  as  to  how  it  should  be 
played.  Sevcik  never  pointed  his  teachings  by 
playing  himself.  I  never  saw  him  take  up  the 
fiddle  while  I  studied  with  him.  While  I  was 
his  pupil  he  paid  me  the  compliment  of  select- 
ing me  to  play  Sinigaglia's  engaging  violin 


Leon  Sametini  201 

concerto,  at  short  notice,  for  the  first  time  in 
Prague.  Sinigaglia  had  asked  Sevcik  to  play 
it,  who  said:  'I  no  longer  play  violin,  but  I 
have  a  pupil  who  can  play  it  for  you,'  and  in- 
troduced me  to  him.  Sinigaglia  became  a  good 
friend  of  mine,  and  I  was  the  first  to  introduce 
his  Rapsodia  Piedmontese  for  violin  and 
orchestra  in  London.  To  return  to  Sevcik — 
with  all  the  deficiencies  of  his  teaching 
methods,  he  had  one  great  gift.  He  taught 
his  pupils  how  to  practice!  And — aside  from 
bowing — he  made  all  mechanical  problems, 
especially  finger  problems,  absolutely  clear  and 
lucid. 

A  QUARTET  OF  GREAT  TEACHERS   WITH   WHOM 
ALL  MAY  STUDY 

"Still,  all  said  and  done,  it  was  after  I  had 
finished  with  all  my  teachers  that  I  really  be- 
gan to  learn  to  play  violin:  above  all  from 
Ysaye,  whom  I  went  to  hear  play  wherever 
and  whenever  I  could.  I  think  that  the  most 
valuable  lessons  I  have  ever  had  are  those  un- 
consciously given  me  by  four  of  the  greatest 
violinists  I  know :  Ysaye,  Kreisler,  Elman  and 
Thibaud.  Each  of  these  artists  is  so  different 
that  no  one  seems  altogether  to  replace  the 


202  Violin  Mastery 

other.  Ysaye  with  his  imiqi'.e  personahty,  the 
immense  breadth  and  sweep  of  his  interpreta- 
tion, his  dramatic  strength,  stands  alone. 
Kreisler  has  a  certain  sparkhng  scintillance  in 
his  playing  that  is  his  only.  Elman  might  be 
called  the  Caruso  among  violinists,  with  the 
perfected  sensuous  beauty  of  his  tone;  while 
Thibaud  stands  for  supreme  elegance  and  dis- 
tinction. I  have  learned  much  from  each  mem- 
ber of  this  great  quartet.  And  if  the  artist  can 
profit  from  hearing  and  seeing  them  play,  why 
not  the  student?  Every  recital  given  by  such 
masters  offers  the  earnest  violin  student  price- 
less opportunities  for  study  and  comparison. 
My  special  leaning  toward  Ysaye  is  due,  aside 
from  his  wonderful  personality^  to  the  fact  that 
I  feel  music  in  the  same  way  that  he  does. 

TEACHING  PRINCIPLES 

'My  teaching  principles  are  the  results  of 
my  own  training  period,  my  own  experience  as 
a  concert  artist  and  teacher — before  I  came  to 
America  I  taught  in  London,  where  Isolde 
Menges,  among  others,  studied  with  me — and 
what  either  directly  or  indirectly  I  have  learned 
from  my  great  colleagues.  In  the  Music  Col- 
lege I  give  the  advanced  pupils  their  individual 


Leon  Sametini  203 

lessons;  but  once  a  week  the  whole  class  as- 
sembles— as  in  the  European  conservatories — 
and  those  whose  turn  it  is  to  play  do  so  while 
the  others  listen.  This  is  of  value  to  every 
student,  since  it  gives  him  an  opportunity  of 
'hearing  himself  as  others  hear  him.'  Then,  to 
stimulate  appreciation  and  musical  develop- 
ment there  are  ensemble  and  string  quartet 
classes.  I  believe  that  every  violinist  should  be 
able  to  play  viola,  and  in  quartet  work  I  make 
the  players  shift  constantly  from  one  to  the 
other  instrument  in  order  to  hear  what  they 
play  from  a  different  angle. 

"For  left  hand  work  I  stick  to  the  excellent 
Sevcik  exercises  and  for  some  pupils  I  use  the 
Carl  Flesch  Urstudien.  For  studies  of  real 
musical  value  Rode,  of  course,  is  unexcelled. 
His  studies  are  the  masterpieces  of  their  kind, 
and  I  turn  them  into  concert  pieces.  Thibaud 
and  Elman  have  supplied  some  of  them  with 
interesting  piano  accompaniments. 

"For  bowing,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
purely  mechanical  exercises,  I  used  Kreutzer 
and  Rode,  and  Gavinies.  Ninety-nine  per 
cent,  of  pupils'  faults  are  faults  of  bowing.  It 
is  an  art  in  itself.  Sevcik  was  able  to  develop 
Kubelik's  left  hand  work  to  the  last  degree  of 
perfection — but  not  his  bowing.     In  the  case 


204  Violin  Mastery 

of  Kocian,  another  well-known  SevCik  pupil 
whom  I  have  heard  play,  his  bowing  was  by  no 
means  an  outstanding  feature.  I  often  have 
to  start  pupils  on  the  open  strings  in  order  to 
correct  fundamental  bow  faults. 

"When  watching  a  great  artist  play  the 
student  should  not  expect  to  secure  similar  re- 
sults by  slavish  imitation — another  pupil  fault. 
The  thing  to  do  is  to  realize  the  principle  be- 
hind the  artist's  playing,  and  apply  it  to  one's 
own  physical  possibilities. 

"Every  one  holds,  draws  and  uses  the  bow 
in  a  different  way.  If  no  two  thumb-prints 
are  alike,  neither  are  any  two  sets  of  fingers 
and  wrists.  This  is  why  not  slavish  imitation, 
but  intelligent  adaptation  should  be  applied 
to  the  playing  of  the  teacher  in  the  class-room 
or  the  artist  on  the  concert-stage.  For  in- 
stance, the  little  finger  of  Ysaye's  left  hand 
bends  inward  somewhat — as  a  result  it  is  per- 
fectly natural  for  him  to  make  less  use  of  the 
little  finger,  while  it  might  be  very  difficult  or 
almost  impossible  for  another  to  employ  the 
same  fingering.  And  certain  compositions  and 
styles  of  composition  are  more  adapted  to  one 
violinist  than  to  another.  I  remember  when  I 
was  a  student,  that  Wieniawski's  music  seemed 


Leon  Sametini  205 

to  lie  just  right  for  my  hand.     I  could  read 
difficult  things  of  his  at  sight. 

DOUBLE  HARMONICS 

"Would  I  care  to  discuss  any  special  feature 
of  violin  technic  ?  I  might  say  something  anent 
double  harmonics — a  subject  too  often  taught 
in  a  mechanical  way,  and  one  I  have  always 
taken  special  pains  to  make  absolutely  plain  to 
my  own  pupils — for  every  violinist  should  be 
able  to  play  double  harmonics  out  of  a  clear 
understanding  of  how  to  form  them. 

"There  are  only  two  kinds  of  harmonics: 
natural  and  artificial.  Natural  harmonics  may 
be  formed  on  the  major  triad  of  each  open 
string,  using  the  open  string  as  the  tonic.  As, 
for  example,  on  the  G  string  [and  Mr.  Same- 
tini set  down  the  following  illustration]  : 


Then  there  are  four  kinds  of  artificial  har- 
monics, only  three  of  which  are  used :  harmonics 
on  the  major  third  (1 ) ;  harmonics  on  the  per- 
fect fourth  (2) ;  harmonics  on  the  perfect  fifth 
(3) ;  and  harmonics — never  used — on  the  oc- 
tave: 


206  Violin  Mastery 


i 


B«-        -•-        -»■ 


Where  does  the  harmonic  sound  in  each  case? 
Two  octaves  and  a  third  higher  (1) ;  two  oc- 
taves higher  ( 2 )  ;  one  octave  and  a  fifth  higher 
(3)  respectively,  than  the  pressed-down  note. 
If  the  harmonic  on  the  octave  (4)  were  played, 
it  would  sound  just  an  octave  higher  than  the 
pressed-down  note. 

"Now  say  we  wished  to  combine  different 
double  harmonics.  The  whole  principle  is 
made  clear  if  we  take,  let  us  say,  the  first 
double-stop  in  the  scale  of  C  major  in  thirds 
as  an  example: 

*  .    "Beginning  with  the  lower  of  these 
'-    two  notes,  the  C,  we  find  that  it  can- 


i 


not  be  taken  as  a  natural  bar- 1 
monic  because  natural  harmon-  ^~^ 
ics  on  the  open  strings  run  as  follows :  G,  B,  D  on 
the  G  string;  D,  FS,  A  on  the  D  string;  A,  C#, 
E  on  the  A  string;  and  E,  GS,  B  on  the  E 
string.  There  are  three  ways  of  taking  the  C 
before  mentioned  as  an  artificial  harmonic. 
The  E  may  be  taken  in  the  following  manner : 

Nat.  harmonic  Artificial  harmonic 


i 


-# — -^ 


Leon  Sartietini  207 

Xow  we  have  to  combine  the  C  and  E  as  well 
as  we  are  able.  Rejecting  the  following  com- 
binations as  impossible — any  violinist  will  see 
why — 


we  have  a  choice  of  the  two  possible  combina- 
tions remaining,  with  the  fingering  indicated: 


^§ — ^-1- 


"With  regard  to  the  actual  execution  of 
these  harmonics,  1  advise  all  students  to  try 
and  play  them  with  every  bit  as  much  expres- 
sive feeling  as  ordinary  notes.  My  experience 
has  been  that  pupils  do  not  pay  nearly  enough 
attention  to  the  intonation  of  harmonics.  In 
other  words,  they  try  to  produce  the  harmonics 
immediately,  instead  of  first  making  sure  that 
both  fingers  are  on  the  right  spot  before  they 
loosen  one  finger  on  the  string.     For  instance 

in  the  following:    ^^^  first   play  _    - 


and  then  then  loosen  the  fourth  finger, 


and  play      ^ 

"The  same  principle  holds  good  when  play- 
ing double  harmonics.     Nine"  tenths   of  the 


208  Violin  Mastery 

'squeaking'  heard  when  harmonics  are  played 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  finger-placing  is  not 
properly  prepared,  and  that  the  fingers  are  not 
on  the  right  spot. 

"Never,  when  playing  a  harmonic  with  an 
up-bow  ( V  ) ,  at  the  point,  smash  down  the  bow 
on  the  string ;  but  have  it  already  on  the  string 
before  playing  the  harmonic.  The  process  is 
reversed  when  playing  a  down-bow  ( i — i )  har- 
monic. When  beginning  a  harmonic  at  the 
frog,  have  the  harmonic  ready,  then  let  the 
bow  drop  gently  on  the  string. 

"Triple  and  quadruple  harmonics  may  be 
combined  in  exactly  the  same  way.  Students 
should  never  get  the  idea  that  you  press  down 
the  string  as  you  press  a  button  and — presto — 
the  magic  harmonics  appear!  They  are  a 
simple  and  natural  result  of  the  proper  appli- 
cation of  scientific  principles;  and  the  sooner 
the  student  learns  to  form  and  combine  har- 
monics himself  instead  of  learning  them  by 
rote,  the  better  will  he  play  them.  Too  often 
a  student  can  give  the  fingering  of  certain 
double  harmonics  and  cannot  use  it.  Of  course, 
harmonics  are  only  a  detail  of  the  complete 
mastery  of  the  violin;  but  mastery  of  all  de- 
tails leads  to  mastery  of  the  whole. 


Leon  Sametini  209 


VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"And  what  is  mastery  of  the  whole?  Mas- 
tery of  the  whole,  real  violin  mastery,  I  think, 
lies  in  the  control  of  the  interpretative  problem, 
the  power  to  awaken  emotion  by  the  use  of  the 
instrument.  Many  feel  more  than  they  can 
express,  have  more  left  hand  than  bow  technic 
and,  like  Kubelik,  have  not  the  perfected  tech- 
nic for  which  perfected  playing  calls.  The 
artist  who  feels  beauty  keenly  and  deeply  and 
whose  mechanical  equipment  allows  him  to 
make  others  feel  and  share  the  beauty  he  him- 
self feels  is  in  my  opinion  worthy  of  being' 
called  a  master  of  the  violin." 


XVIII 
ALEXANDER  SASLAVSKY 

WHAT  THE  TEACHER  CAN  AND  CANNOT  DO 

Alexander  Saslavsky  is  probably  best 
known  as  a  solo  artist,  as  the  concertmaster  of 
a  great  symphonic  orchestra,  as  the  leader  of 
the  admirable  quartet  which  bears  his  name. 
Yet,  at  the  same  time,  few  violinists  can  speak 
with  more  authority  anent  the  instructive 
phases  of  their  Art.  Not  only  has  he  been  ac- 
tive for  years  in  the  teaching  field;  but  as  a 
pedagog  he  rounds  out  the  traditions  of 
Ferdinand  David,  Massard,  Auer,  and  Griin 
(Vienna  Hochschule),  acquired  during  his 
"study  years,"  with  the  result  of  his  own  long 
and  varied  experience. 

Beginning  at  the  beginning,  I  asked  Mr. 
Saslavsky  to  tell  me  something  about  methods, 
his  own  in  particular.  "Method  is  a  flexible 
term,"  he  answered.  "What  the  word  should 
mean  is  the  cultivation  of  the  pupil's  indi- 
viduality along  the  lines  best  suited  to  it.    Not 

210 


Alexander  Saslavsky  211 

that  a  guide  which  may  be  employed  to  de- 
velop common-sense  principles  is  not  valuable. 
But  even  here,  the  same  guide  (violin-method) 
will  not  answer  for  every  pupil.  Personally  I 
find  De  Beriot's  'Violin  School'  the  most  gen- 
erally useful,  and  for  advanced  students, 
Ferdinand  David's  second  book.  Then,  for 
scales — I  insist  on  my  pupils  being  able  to  play 
a  perfect  scale  through  three  octaves — the 
Hrimaly  book  of  scales.  Many  advanced  vio- 
linists cannot  play  a  good  scale  simply  because 
of  a  lack  of  fundamental  work. 

"As  soon  as  the  pupil  is  able,  he  should  take 
up  Kreutzer  and  stick  to  him  as  the  devotee 
does  to  his  Bible.  Any  one  who  can  play  the 
'42  Exercises'  as  they  should  be  played  may  be 
called  a  well-balanced  violinist.  There  are 
too  many  purely  mechanical  exercises — and  the 
circumstance  that  we  have  Kreutzer,  Rode, 
Fiorillo,  Rovelli  and  Dont  emphasizes  the  fact. 
And  there  are  too  many  elaborate  and  com- 
plicated violin  methods.  Sevcik,  for  instance, 
has  devised  a  purely  mechanical  system  of  this 
kind,  perfect  from  a  purely  mechanical  stand- 
point, but  one  whose  consistent  use,  in  my  opin- 
ion, kills  initiative  and  individuality.  I  have 
had  experience  with  Sevcik  pupils  in  quartet 


212  Violin  Mastery 

playing,  and  have  found  that  they  have  no  ex- 
pression. 

WHAT  THE  TEACHER  CAN  AND  CANNOT  DO 

"After  all,  the  teacher  can  only  supply  the 
pupil  with  the  violinistic  equipment.  The  pupil 
must  use  it.  There  is  tone,  for  instance.  The 
teacher  cannot  make  tone  for  the  pupil — ^he 
can  only  shovr  him  how  tone  can  be  made. 
Sometimes  a  purely  physiological  reason  makes 
it  almost  impossible  for  the  pupil  to  produce 
a  good  natural  tone.  If  the  finger-tips  are 
not  adequately  equipped  with  'cushions,'  and  a 
pupil  wishes  to  use  the  vibrato  there  is  nothing 
with  which  he  can  vibrate.  There  is  real  mean- 
ing, speaking  of  the  violinist's  tone,  in  the 
phrase  'he  has  it  at  his  fingers'  tips.'  Then 
there  is  the  matter  of  slow  practice.  It  rests 
with  the  pupil  to  carry  out  the  teacher's  injunc- 
tions in  this  respect.  The  average  pupil  prac- 
tices too  fast,  is  too  eager  to  develop  his  Art  as 
a  money  maker.  And  too  many  really  gifted 
students  take  up  orchestra  playing,  which  no 
one  can  do  continuously  and  hope  to  be  a  solo 
player.  Four  hours  of  study  work  may  be 
nullified  by  a  single  hour  of  orchestra  playing. 
Musically  it  is  broadening,  of  course,  but  I  am 


Aleccander  Saslavsky  213 

speaking  from  the  standpoint  of  the  student 
who  hopes  to  become  a  solo  artist.  An  opera 
orchestra  is  especially  bad  in  this  way.  In  the 
symphonic  ensemble  more  care  is  used;  but  in 
the  opera  orchestra  they  employ  the  right  arm 
for  tremolo!  There  is  a  good  deal  of  camou- 
flage as  regards  string  playing  in  an  opera 
orchestra,  and  much  of  the  music — notably 
Wagner's — is  quite  impracticable. 

"And  lessons  are  often  made  all  too  short. 
A  teacher  in  common  honesty  cannot  really 
give  a  pupil  much  in  half-an-hour— it  is  not 
a  real  lesson.  There  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said 
for  class  teaching  as  it  is  practiced  at  the 
European  conservatories,  especially  as  regards 
interpretation.  In  my  student  days  I  learned 
much  from  listening  to  others  play  the  con- 
certos they  had  prepared,  and  from  noting 
the  teacher's  corrections.  And  this  even  in  a 
purely  technical  way:  I  can  recall  Kubelik 
playing  Paganini  as  a  wonderful  display  of 
the  technical  points  of  violin  playing. 

A  GREAT  DEFECT 

"Most  pupils  seem  to  lack  an  absolute  sense 
of  rhythm — a  great  defect.  Yet  where  latent 
it  may  be  developed.   Here  Kreutzer  is  inval- 


214  Violin  Mastery 

uable,  since  he  presents  every  form  of  rhythmic 
problem,  scales  in  various  rhythms  and  bow- 
ings. Kreutzer's  'Exercise  No.  2/  for  ex- 
ample, may  be  studied  with  any  number  of 
bowings.  To  produce  a  broad  tone  the  bow 
must  move  slowly,  and  in  rapid  passages  should 
never  seem  to  introduce  technical  exercises  in 
a  concert  number.  The  student  should 
memorize  Kreutzer  and  Fiorillo.  Flesch's 
Urstudien  offer  the  artist  or  professional 
musician  who  has  time  for  little  practice  excel- 
lent material ;  but  are  not  meant  for  the  pupil, 
unless  he  be  so  far  advanced  that  he  may  be 
trusted  to  use  them  alone. 

tone:  practice  time 

"Broad  playing  gives  the  singing  tone — the 
true  violin  tone — a  long  bow  drawn  its  full 
length.  Like  every  general  rule  though,  this 
one  must  be  modified  by  the  judgment  of  the 
individual  player.  Violin  playing  is  an  art 
of  many  mysteries.  Some  pupils  grasp  a  point 
at  once ;  others  have  to  have  it  explained  seven 
or  eight  different  ways  before  grasping  it. 
The  serious  student  should  practice  not  less 
than  four  hours,  preferably  in  twenty  minute 
intervals.     After   some   twenty   minutes  the 


Alexander  Saslavshy  215 

brain  is  apt  to  tire.  And  since  the  fingers  are^ 
controlled  by  the  brain,  it  is  best  to  relax  for 
a  short  time  before  going  on.  Mental  and 
physical  control  must  always  go  hand  in  hand. 
Four  hours  of  intelligent,  consistent  practice 
work  are  far  better  than  eight  or  ten  of 
fatigued  effort. 

A  NATIONAL   CONSERVATORY 

"Some  five  years  ago  too  many  teachers  gave 
their  pupils  the  Mendelssohn  and  Paganini 
concertos  to  play  before  they  knew  their 
Kreutzer.  But  there  has  been  a  change  for  the 
better  during  recent  years.  Kneisel  was  one 
of  the  first  to  produce  pupils  here  who  played 
legitimately,  according  to  standard  violinistic 
ideals.  One  reason  why  Auer  has  had  such 
brilliant  pupils  is  that  poor  students  were  re- 
ceived at  the  Petrograd  Conservatory  free  of 
charge.  All  they  had  to  supply  was  talent; 
and  I  look  forward  to  the  time  when  we  will 
have  a  National  conservatory  in  this  country, 
supported  by  the  Government.  Then  the  poor, 
but  musically  gifted,  pupil  will  have  the  same 
opportunities  that  his  brother,  who  is  well-to- 
do,  now  has. 


216  Violin  Mastery 


SOME  PERSONAL  VIEWS  AND  REFLECTIONS 

"You  ask  me  to  tell  you  something  of  my 
own  musical  preferences.  Well,  take  the  con- 
certos. I  have  reached  a  point  where  the 
Mendelssohn,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  Bach  and 
Brahms  concertos  seen  to  sum  up  what  is  truly 
worth  while.  The  others  begin  to  bore  me; 
even  Bruch!  Paganini,  Wieniawski,  etc.,  are 
mainly  mediums  of  display.  Most  of  the  great 
violinists,  Ysaye,  Thibaud,  etc.,  during  recent 
years  are  reverting  to  the  violin  sonatas. 
Ysaye,  for  instance,  has  recently  been  playing 
the  Lazzari  sonata,  a  very  powerful  and  beau- 
tiful work. 

"My  experiences  as  a  'concertmaster' ?  I 
have  played  with  Weingartner;  Saint-Saens 
(whose  amiabilit}^  to  me,  when  he  first  visited 
this  country,  I  recall  with  pleasure)  ;  Gustav 
Mahler,  Tschaikovsky,  Safonoff,  Seidel, 
Bauer,  and  Walter  Damrosch,  whose  friend 
and  associate  I  have  been  for  the  last  twenty- 
two  years.  He  is  a  wonderful  man,  many- 
sided  and  versatile ;  a  notably  fine  pianist ;  and 
playing  chamber  music  with  him  during  suc- 
cessive summers  is  numbered  among  my  pleas- 
antest  recollections. 


Alexander  Saslavsky  217 

"In  speaking  of  concertos  some  time  ago,  I 
forgot  to  mention  one  work  well  worth  study- 
ing. This  is  the  Russian  Mlynarski's  concerto 
in  D,  which  I  played  with  the  Russian  Sym- 
phony Orchestra  some  eight  years  ago  for  the 
first  time  in  this  country,  as  well  as  a  fine 
'Romance  and  Caprice'  by  Rubinstein. 

"Is  the  music  a  concertmaster  is  called  upon 
to  play  always  violinistic?  Far  from  it. 
Symphonic  music — in  as  much  as  the  concert- 
master  is  concerned,  is  usually  not  idiomatic 
violin  music.  Richard  Strauss's  violin  concerto 
can  really  be  played  by  the  violinist.  The 
ohhligatos  in  his  symphonies  are  a  very  differ- 
ent matter ;  they  go  beyond  accepted  technical 
boundaries.  With  Stravinsky  it  is  the  same. 
The  violin  obhligafo  in  Rimsky-Korsakov's 
SchehircLzade,  though,  is  real  violin  music.  De- 
bussy and  Ravel  are  most  subtle ;  they  call  for 
a  particularly  good  ear,  since  the  harmonic 
balance  of  their  music  is  very  delicate.  The 
concertmaster  has  to  develop  his  own  interpre- 
tations, subiect,  of  course,  to  the  conductor's 
ideas. 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"Violin  Mastery?  It  means  to  me  complete 
control  of  the  fingerboard,  a  being  at  home  in 


218  Violin  Mastery 

every  position,  absolute  sureness  of  fingering, 
absolute  equality  of  tone  under  all  circum- 
stances. I  remember  Ysaye  playing  Tschai- 
kovsky's  Serenade  Melancolique,  and  using  a 
fingering  for  certain  passages  which  I  liked 
very  much.  I  asked  him  to  give  it  to  me  in 
detail,  but  he  merely  laughed  and  said:  'I'd 
like  to,  but  I  cannot,  because  I  really  do  not 
remember  which  fingers  I  used!'  That  is 
mastery — a  control  so  complete  that  fingering 
was  unconscious,  and  the  interpretation  of  the 
thought  was  all  that  was  in  the  artist's  mind! 
Sev6ik's  'complete  technical  mastery'  is  after 
all  not  perfect,  since  it  represents  mechanical 
and  not  mental  control." 


XIX 

TOSCHA  SEIDEL 

HOW  TO  STUDY 

ToscHA  Seidel,  though  one  of  the  more 
recent  of  the  young  Russian  violinists  who  rep- 
resent the  fruition  of  Professor  Auer's  form- 
ative gifts,  has,  to  quote  H.  F.  Peyser,  "the 
transcendental  technic  observed  in  the  greatest 
pupils  of  his  master,  a  command  of  mechanism 
which  makes  the  rough  places  so  plain  that  the 
traces  of  their  roughness  are  hidden  to  the  un- 
practiced  eye."  He  commenced  to  study  the 
violin  seriously  at  the  age  of  seven  in  Odessa, 
his  natal  town,  with  Max  Fiedemann,  an  Auer 
pupil.  A  year  and  a  half  later  Alexander 
Fiedemann  heard  him  play  a  De  Beriot  con- 
certo in  public,  and  induced  him  to  study  at 
the  Stern  Conservatory  in  Berlin,  with  Brod- 
sky,  a  pupil  of  Joachim,  with  whom  he  re- 
mained for  two  years. 

It  was  in  Berlin  that  the  young  violinist 
reached  the  turning  point  of  his  career.    "I  was 

219 


220  Violin  Mastery 

a  boy  of  twelve,"  he  said,  "when  I  heard  Jascha 
Heifetz  play  for  the  first  time.  He  played  the 
Tschaikovsky  concerto,  and  he  played  it  won- 
derfully. His  bowing,  his  fingering,  his  whole 
style  and  manner  of  playing  so  greatly  im- 
pressed me  that  I  felt  I  must  have  his  teacher, 
that  I  would  never  be  content  unless  I  studied 
with  Professor  Auer!  In  1912  I  at  length 
had  an  opportunity  to  play  for  the  Professor  in 
his  home  at  Loschivitz,  in  Dresden,  and  to 
my  great  joy  he  at  once  accepted  me  as  a  pupil. 

STUDYING  WITH  PROFESSOR  AUER 

"Studying  with  Professor  Auer  was  a 
revelation.  I  had  private  lessons  from  him, 
and  at  the  same  time  attended  the  classes  at 
the  Petrograd  Conservatory.  I  should  say 
that  his  great  specialty,  if  one  can  use  the  word 
specialty  in  the  case  of  so  universal  a  master 
of  teaching  as  the  Professor,  was  bowing.  In 
all  violin  playing  the  left  hand,  the  finger  hand, 
might  be  compared  to  a  perfectly  adjusted 
technical  machine,  one  that  needs  to  be  kept 
well  oiled  to  function  properly.  The  right 
hand,  the  bow  hand,  is  the  direct  opposite — it 
is  the  painter  hand,  the  artist  hand,  its  phras- 
ing outlines  the  pictures  of  music ;  its  nuances 


TosiHA  Seidel 


Toscha  Seidel  221 

fill  them  with  beauty  of  color.  And  while  the 
Professor  insisted  as  a  matter  of  course  on 
the  absolute  development  of  finger  mechanics, 
he  was  an  inspiration  as  regards  the  right 
manipulation  of  the  bow,  and  its  use  as  a 
medium  of  interpretation.  And  he  made  his 
pupils  think.  Often,  when  I  played  a  passage 
in  a  concerto  or  sonata  and  it  lacked  clearness, 
he  would  ask  me:  'Why  is  this  passage  not 
clear?'  Sometimes  I  knew  and  sometimes  I 
did  not.  But  not  until  he  was  satisfied  that 
I  could  not  myself  answer  the  question,  would 
he  show  me  how  to  answer  it.  He  could  make 
every  least  detail  clear,  illustrating  it  on  his 
own  violin ;  but  if  the  pupil  could  'work  out  his 
own  salvation'  he  always  encouraged  him  to  do 
so. 

"Most  teachers  make  bowing  a  very  compli- 
cated affair,  adding  to  its  difficulties.  But  Pro- 
fessor Auer  develops  a  natural  bowing,  with 
an  absolutely  free  wrist,  in  all  his  pupils;  for 
he  teaches  each  student  along  the  line  of  his 
individual  aptitudes.  Hence  the  length  of 
the  fingers  and  the  size  of  the  hand  make  no 
difference,  because  in  the  case  of  each  pupil 
they  are  treated  as  separate  problems,  capable 
of  an  individual  solution.     I  have  known  of 


222  Violin  Mastery 

pupils  who  came  to  him  with  an  absolutely  stijff 
wrist ;  and  yet  he  taught  them  to  overcome  it. 


ARTIST  PUPILS  AND  AMATEUR  STUDENTS 

"As  regards  difficulties,  technical  and  other, 
a  distinction  might  be  made  between  the  artist 
and  the  average  amateur.  The  latter  does  not 
make  the  violin  his  life  work :  it  is  an  incidental. 
While  he  may  reasonably  content  himself  with 
playing  well,  the  artist-pupil  must  achieve  per- 
fection. It  is  the  difference  between  an  ac- 
complishment and  an  art.  The  amateur  plays 
more  or  less  for  the  sake  of  playing — the  'how' 
is  secondary ;  but  for  the  artist  the  'how'  comes 
first,  and  for  him  the  shortest  piece,  a  single 
scale,  has  difficulties  of  which  the  amateur  is 
quite  ignorant.  And  everything  is  difficult  in 
its  perfected  sense.  What  I,  as  a  student, 
found  to  be  most  difficult  were  double  har- 
monics— I  still  consider  them  to  be  the  most 
difficult  thing  in  the  whole  range  of  violin  tech- 
nic.  First  of  all,  they  call  for  a  large  hand, 
because  of  the  wide  stretches.  But  harmonics 
were  one  of  the  things  I  had  to  master  before 
Professor  Auer  would  allow  me  to  appear  in 
public.  Some  find  tenths  and  octaves  their 
stumbling  block,  but  I  cannot  say  that  they 


Toscha  Seidel  223 

ever  gave  me  much  trouble.  After  all,  the 
main  thing  with  any  difficulty  is  to  surmount 
it,  and  just  how  is  really  a  secondary  matter. 
I  know  Professor  Auer  used  to  say :  *Play  with 
your  feet  if  you  must,  but  make  the  violin 
sound !'  With  tenths,  octaves,  sixths,  with  any 
technical  frills,  the  main  thing  is  to  bring  them 
out  clearly  and  convincingly.  And,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  one  must  remember  that  when 
something  does  not  sound  out  convincingly  on 
the  violin,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  weather,  or 
the  strings  or  rosin  or  anything  else — it  is  al- 
ways the  artist's  own  fault! 

HOW  TO  STUDY 

"Scale  study — all  Auer  pupils  had  to  prac- 
tice scales  every  day,  scales  in  all  the  inter- 
vals— is  a  most  important  thing.  And  follow- 
ing his  idea  of  stimulating  the  pupil's  self- 
development,  the  Professor  encouraged  us  to 
find  what  we  needed  ourselves.  I  remember 
that  once — we  were  standing  in  a  corridor  of 
the  Conservatory — when  I  asked  him,  'What 
should  I  practice  in  the  way  of  studies?'  he  an- 
swered: 'Take  the  difficult  passages  from  the 
great  concertos.  You  cannot  improve  on  them, 
for  they  are  as  good,  if  not  better,  as  any 


224  Violin  Mastery 

studies  written.'  As  regards  technical  work 
we  were  also  encouraged  to  think  out  our  own 
exercises.  And  this  I  still  do.  When  I  feel 
that  my  thirds  and  sixths  need  attention  I  prac- 
tice scales  and  original  figurations  in  these 
intervals.  But  genuine,  resultful  practice  is 
something  that  should  never  be  counted  by 
'hours.'  Sometimes  I  do  not  touch  my  violin 
all  day  long;  and  one  hour  with  head  work  is 
worth  any  number  of  days  without  it.  At  the 
most  I  never  practice  more  than  three  hours  a 
day.  And  when  my  thoughts  are  fixed  on  other 
things  it  would  be  time  lost  to  try  to  practice 
seriously.  Without  technical  control  a  violinist 
could  not  be  a  great  artist;  for  he  could  not 
express  himself.  Yet  a  great  artist  can  give 
even  a  technical  study,  say  a  Rode  etude,  a 
quality  all  its  own  in  playing  it.  That  technic, 
however,  is  a  means,  not  an  end,  Professor 
Auer  never  allowed  his  pupils  to  forget.  He  is 
a  wonderful  master  of  interpretation.  I 
studied  the  great  concertos  with  him — Beetho- 
ven, Bruch,  Mendelssohn,  Tschaikovsky,  Dvo- 
rak, the  Brahms  concerto  (which  I  prefer  to 
any  other)  ;  the  Vieuxtemps  Fifth  and  Lalo 
(both  of  which  I  have  heard  Ysaye,  that  su- 
preme artist  who  possesses  all  that  an  artist 
should  have,  play  in  Berlin)  ;  the  Elgar  con- 


Toscha  SeideJ  225 

certo  (a  fine  work  which  I  once  heard  Kreisler, 
an  artist  as  great  as  he  is  modest,  play  wonder- 
fully in  Petrograd),  as  well  as  other  concertos 
of  the  standard  repertory.  And  Professor  Auer 
always  sought  to  have  us  play  as  individuals; 
and  while  he  never  allowed  us  to  overstep  the 
boundaries  of  the  musically  esthetic,  he  gave 
our  individuality  free  play  within  its  limits. 
He  never  insisted  on  a  pupil  accepting  his  own 
nuances  of  interpretation  because  they  were 
his.  I  know  that  when  playing  for  him,  if  I 
came  to  a  passage  which  demanded  an  espe- 
cially beautiful  legato  rendering,  he  would  say : 
'Now  show  how  you  can  sing!'  The  exquisite 
legato  he  taught  was  all  a  matter  of  perfect 
bowing,  and  as  he  often  said:  'There  must  be 
no  such  thing  as  strings  or  hair  in  the  pupil's 
consciousness.  One  must  not  play  violin,  one 
must  sing  violin!' 

FIDDLE  AND  STRINGS 

"I  do  not  see  how  any  artist  can  use  an  in- 
strument which  is  quite  new  to  him  in  concert. 
I  never  play  any  but  my  own  Guadagnini, 
which  is  a  fine  fiddle,  with  a  big,  sonorous  tone. 
As  to  wire  strings,  I  hate  them!  In  the  first 
place,  a  wire  E  sounds  distinctly  different  to 


226  Violin  Mastery 

the  artist  than  does  a  gut  E.  And  it  is  a  dif- 
ference which  any  violinist  will  notice.  Then, 
too,  the  wire  E  is  so  thin  that  the  fingers  have 
nothing  to  take  hold  of,  to  touch  firmly.  And 
to  me  the  metallic  vibrations,  especially  on  the 
open  strings,  are  most  disagreeable.  Of 
course,  from  a  purely  practical  standpoint 
there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  wire  E. 

VIOLIN   MASTERY 

"What  is  violin  mastery  as  I  understand  it? 
First  of  all  it  means  talent,  secondly  technic, 
and  in  the  third  place,  tone.  And  then  one 
must  be  musical  in  an  all-embracing  sense  to 
attain  it.  One  must  have  musical  breadth  and 
understanding  in  general,  and  not  only  in  a 
narrowly  violinistic  sense.  And,  finally,  the 
good  God  must  give  the  artist  who  aspires  to 
be  a  master  good  hands,  and  direct  him  to  a 
good  teacher  I" 


XX 
EDMUND  SEVERN 

THE  JOACHIM  BOWING  AND  OTHERS:  THE 
LEFT  HAND 

Edmund  Severn's  activity  in  the  field  of 
violin  music  is  a  three-fold  one:  he  is  a  com- 
poser, an  interpreting  artist  and  a  teacher,  and 
his  fortuitous  control  of  the  three  vital  phases 
of  his  Art  make  his  views  as  regards  its  study 
of  very  real  value.  The  lover  of  string  music 
in  general  would  naturally  attach  more  im- 
portance to  his  string  quartet  in  D  major, 
his  trio  for  violin,  'cello  and  piano,  his  violin 
concerto  in  D  minor,  the  sonata,  the  "Orien- 
tal," "Italian,"  "New  England"  suites  for  vio- 
lin, and  the  fine  suite  in  A  major,  for  two  vio- 
lins and  piano,  than  to  his  symphonic  poems 
for  orchestra,  his  choral  works  and  his  songs. 
And  those  in  search  of  hints  to  aid  them  to 
master  the  violin  would  be  most  interested  in 
having  the  benefit  of  his  opinions  as  a  teacher, 
founded  on  long  experience  and  keen  observa- 

227 


228    "  Violin  Mastery 

tion.  Since  Mr.  Severn  is  one  of  those  teach- 
ers who  are  born,  not  made,  and  is  interested 
heart  and  soul  in  this  phase  of  his  musical  work, 
it  was  not  difficult  to  draw  him  out. 


THE   JOACHIM    BOWING 

"My  first  instructor  in  the  violin  was  my 
father,  the  pioneer  violin  teacher  of  Hartford, 
Conn.,  where  my  boyhood  was  passed,  and  then 
I  studied  with  Franz  Milcke  and  Bernard 
Listemann,  concertmaster  of  the  Boston 
Symphony  Orchestra.  But  one  day  I  hap- 
pened to  read  a  few  lines  reprinted  in  the  Met- 
ronome from  some  European  source,  which 
quoted  Wilhelmj  as  saying  that  Emanuel, 
Wirth,  Joachim's  first  assistant  at  the  Berlin 
HocJischule,  'was  the  best  teacher  of  his  gen- 
eration.' This  was  enough  for  me:  feeling 
that  the  best  could  be  none  too  good,  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  go  to  him.  And  I  did.  Wirth 
was  the  viola  of  the  Joachim  Quartet,  and 
probably  a  better  teacher  than  was  Joachim 
himself.  Violin  teaching  was  a  cult  with  him, 
a  religion;  and  I  think  he  believed  God  had 
sent  him  to  earth  to  teach  fiddle.  Like  all  the 
teachers  at  the  HocJischule  he  taught  the  regu- 
lar 'Joachim'  bowing — they  were  obliged  to 


Edmund  Severn  229 

teach  it — as  far  as  it  could  be  taught,  for  it 
could  not  be  taught  every  one.  And  that  is 
the  real  trouble  with  the  'Joachim'  bowing.  It 
is  impossible  to  make  a  general  application  of 
it. 

"Joachim  had  a  very  long  arm  and  when  he 
played  at  the  point  of  the  bow  his  arm  posi- 
tion was  approximately  the  same  as  that  of  the 
average  player  at  the  middle  of  the  bow. 
Willy  Hess  was  a  perfect  exponent  of  the  Joa- 
chim method  of  bowing.  Why?  Because  he 
had  a  very  long  arm.  But  at  the  Hochschule 
the  Joachim  bowing  was  compulsory:  they 
taught,  or  tried  to  teach,  all  who  came  there 
to  use  it  without  exception ;  boys  or  girls  whose 
arms  chanced  to  be  long  enough  could  acquire 
it,  but  big  men  with  short  arms  had  no  chance 
whatever.  Having  a  medium  long  arm,  by 
dint  of  hard  work  I  managed  to  get  my  bowing 
to  suit  Wirth ;  yet  I  always  felt  at  a  disadvan- 
tage at  the  point  of  the  bow,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  after  my  return  to  the  United  States 
I  taught  the  Joachim  bowing  for  fully  eight 
years. 

"Then,  when  he  first  came  here,  I  heard  and 
saw  Ysaye  play,  and  I  noticed  how  greatly 
his  bowing  differed  from  that  of  Joachim,  the 
point  being  that  his  first  finger  was  always  in 


230  Violin  Mastery 

a  position  to  press  naturally  without  the  least 
stiffness.  This  led  me  to  try  to  find  a  less 
constrained  bowing  for  myself,  working  along 
perfectly  natural  lines.  The  Joachim  bowing 
demands  a  high  wrist;  but  in  the  case  of  the 
Belgian  school  an  easy  position  at  the  point  is 
assumed  naturally.  And  it  is  not  hard  to  un- 
derstand that  if  the  bow  be  drawn  parallel 
with  the  bridge,  allowing  for  the  least  possi- 
ble movement  of  hands  and  wrist,  the  greatest 
economy  of  motion,  there  is  no  contravention 
of  the  laws  of  nature  and  playing  is  natural 
and  unconstrained. 

"And  this  applies  to  every  student  of  the  in- 
strument, whether  or  no  he  has  a  long  arm. 
While  I  was  studying  in  Berlin,  Sarasate 
plaj^ed  there  in  public,  with  the  most  natural 
and  unhampered  grace  and  freedom  in  the  use 
of  his  bow.  Yet  the  entire  Hochschule  con- 
tingent unanimously  condemned  his  bowing 
as  being  'stiff' — merely  because  it  did  not  con- 
form to  the  Joachim  tradition.  Of  course, 
there  is  no  question  but  that  Joachim  was  the 
greatest  quartet  player  of  his  time;  and  with 
regard  to  the  interpretation  of  the  classics  he 
was  not  to  be  excelled.  His  conception  of 
Bach,  Beethoven,  Mozart,  Brahms  was  won- 
derful.    The  insistence  at  the  Hochschule  on 


Edmund  Severn  231 

forcing  the  bowing  which  was  natural  to  him 
on  all  others,  irrespective  of  physical  adapta- 
bihty,  is  a  matter  of  regret.  Wirth  was  some- 
what deficient  in  teaching  left  hand  technic, 
as  compared  with,  let  us  say,  Schradieck. 
Wirth's  real  strength  lay  in  his  sincerity  and 
his  ability  to  make  clear  the  musical  contents 
of  the  works  of  the  great  masters.  In  a  Bee- 
thoven or  Spohr  concerto  he  made  a  pupil  give 
its  due  emphasis  to  every  single  note. 

A    PRE-TEACHING    REQUISITE 

''Before  the  violin  student  can  even  begin 
to  study,  there  are  certain  pre-teaching  req- 
uisites which  are  necessary  if  the  teacher  is 
to  be  of  any  service  to  him.  The  violin  is  a 
singing  instrument,  and  therefore  the  first 
thing  called  for  is  a  good  singing  tone.  That 
brings  up  an  important  point — the  proper  ad- 
justment of  the  instrument  used  by  the  stu- 
dent. If  his  lessons  are  to  be  of  real  benefit 
to  him,  the  comj)onent  parts  of  the  instrument, 
post,  bridge,  bass-bar,  strings,  etc.,  must  be 
accurately  adjusted,  in  order  that  the  sound 
values  are  what  they  should  be. 

"From  the  teaching  standpoint  it  is  far  more 
important  that  whatever  violin  the  student  has 


232  Violin  Mastery 

is  one  proi)erly  built  and  adjusted,  than  that 
it  be  a  fine  instrument.  And  the  bow  must 
have  the  right  amount  of  spring,  of  elasticity 
in  its  stick.  A  poor  bow  will  work  more  harm 
than  a  poor  fiddle,  for  if  the  bow  is  poor,  if  it 
lacks  the  right  resilience,  the  student  cannot 
acquire  the  correct  bow  pressure.  He  cannot 
play  spiccato  or  any  of  the  'bouncing'  bowings, 
including  various  forms  of  arpeggios,  with  a 
poor  stick. 

DRAWING   A   LONG   BOW 

"When  I  say  that  the  student  should  'draw 
a  long  bow,'  "  continued  Mr.  Severn  with  a 
smile,  "I  do  not  say  so  at  a  venture.  If  his 
instrument  and  bow  are  in  proper  shape,  this 
is  the  next  thing  for  the  student  to  do.  Ever 
since  Tartini's  time  it  has  been  acknowledged 
that  nothing  can  take  the  place  of  the  study 
of  the  long  bow,  playing  in  all  shades  of  dy- 
namics, from  pp  to  ff'j  and  with  all  the  inflec- 
tions of  crescendo  and  diminuendo.  Part  of 
this  study  should  consist  of  'mute'  exercises — 
not  playing,  but  drawing  the  bow  above  the 
strings,  to  its  full  length,  resting  at  either  end. 
This  ensures  bow  control.  One  great  difii- 
culty  is  that  as  a  rule  the  teacher  cannot  in- 


Edmund  Severn  233 


duce  pupils  to  practice  these  'mute'  exercises, 
in  spite  of  their  unquestionable  value.  All  the 
great  masters  of  the  violin  have  used  them. 
Viotti  thought  so  highly  of  them  that  he  taught 
them  only  to  his  favorite  pupils.  And  even 
to-day  some  distinguished  violinists  play 
dumb  exercises  before  stepping  on  the  recital 
stage.  They  are  one  of  the  best  means  that 
we  have  for  control  of  the  violinistic  nervous 
system. 

WRIST-BOWING 

"Wrist-bowing  is  one  of  the  bowings  in 
which  the  student  should  learn  to  feel  abso- 
lutely and  naturally  at  home.  To  my  think- 
ing the  Gerriian  way  of  teaching  wrist-bowing 
is  altogether  wrong.  Their  idea  is  to  keep 
the  fingers  neutral,  and  let  the  stick  move  the 
fingers!  Yet  this  is  wrong — for  the  player 
holds  his  bow  at  the  finger-tips,  that  terminal 
point  of  the  fingers  where  the  tactile  nerves 
are  most  highly  developed,  and  where  their 
direct  contact  with  the  bow  makes  possible  the 
greatest  variety  of  dynamic  effect,  and  also 
allows  the  development  of  far  greater  speed 
in  short  bowings. 

"Though  the  Germans  say  'Think  of  the 
wrist!'  I  think  with  the  Belgians:  Put  your 


234  Violin  Mastery 

mind  where  you  touch  and  hold  the  bow,  con- 
centrate on  your  fingers.  In  other  words, 
when  you  make  your  bow  change,  do  not  make 
it  according  to  the  Joachim  method,  with  the 
wrist,  but  in  the  natural  way,  with  the  fingers 
always  in  command.  In  this  manner  only  will 
you  get  the  true  wrist  motion. 

STACCATO  AND  OTHER  BOWINGS 

"After  all,  there  are  only  two  general  prin- 
ciples in  violin  playing,  the  long  and  short  bow, 
legato  and  staccato.  Many  a  teacher  finds  it 
very  difficult  to  teach  staccato  correctly,  which 
may  account  for  the  fact  that  many  pupils  find 
it  hard  to  learn.  The  main  reason  is  that,  in 
a  sense,  staccato  is  opposed  to  the  nature  of 
the  violin  as  a  singing  instrument.  To  pro- 
duce a  true  staccato  and  not  a  'scratchato'  it 
is  absolutely  necessary,  while  exerting  the 
proper  pressure  and  movement,  to  keep  the 
muscles  loose.  I  have  evolved  a  simple 
method  for  quickly  achieving  the  desired  re- 
sult in  staccato.  First  I  teach  the  attack  in 
the  middle  of  the  bow,  without  drawing  the 
bow  and  as  though  pressing  a  button:  I  have 
pupils  press  up  with  the  thumb  and  down  with 
the  first  finger,  with  all  muscles  relaxed.  This, 


Edmund  Severn  235 


when  done  correctly,  produces  a  sudden  sharp 
attack. 

"Then,  I  have  the  pupil  place  his  bow  in  the 
middle,  in  position  to  draw  a  down-stroke  from 
the  wrist,  the  bow-hair  being  pressed  and  held 
against  the  string.  A  quick  down-bow  fol- 
lows with  an  immediate  release  of  the  string. 
Repeating  the  process,  use  the  up-stroke.  The 
finished  product  is  merely  the  combination  of 
these  two  exercises — drawing  and  attacking 
simultaneously.  I  have  never  failed  to  give  a 
pupil  a  good  staccato  by  this  exercise,  which 
comprises  the  principle  of  all  genuine  staccato 
playing. 

"One  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  bowings  is 
the  simple  up-and-down  stroke  used  in  the  sec- 
ond Kreutzer  etude,  that  is  to  say,  the  bowing 
between  the  middle  and  point  of  the  bow,  tete 
d'archet,  as  the  French  call  it.  This  bowing 
is  played  badly  on  the  violin  more  often  than 
any  other.  It  demands  constant  rapid  chang- 
ing and,  as  most  pupils  play  it,  the  legato  qual- 
ity is  noticeably  absent.  Too  much  emphasis 
cannot  be  laid  on  the  truth  that  the  'singing 
stroke'  should  be  employed  for  all  bowings, 
long  or  short.  Often  pupils  who  play  quite 
well  show  a  want  of  true  legato  quality  in  their 


236  Violin  Mastery 

tone,  because  there  is  no  connection  between 
their  bowing  in  rapid  work. 

"Individual  bowings  should  always  be  prac- 
ticed separately.  I  always  obhge  my  pupils 
to  practice  all  bowings  on  the  open  strings,  and 
in  all  combinations  of  the  open  strings,  because 
this  allows  them  to  concentrate  on  the  bowing 
itself,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else ;  and  they  ad- 
vance far  more  quickly.  Students  should 
never  be  compelled  to  learn  new  bowings  while 
they  have  to  think  of  their  fingers  at  the  same 
time:  we  cannot  serve  two  masters  simultane- 
ously! All  in  all,  bowing  is  most  important  in 
violin  technic,  for  control  of  the  bow  means 
much  toward  mastery  of  the  violin. 

THE  LEFT  HAND 

"It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  correct  use 
of  the  left  hand  is  of  equal  importance.  It 
seems  not  to  be  generally  known  that  finger- 
pressure  has  much  to  do  with  tone-quality. 
The  correct  poise  of  the  left  hand,  as  conspic- 
uously shown  by  Heifetz  for  instance,  throws 
the  extreme  tips  of  the  fingers  hammerlike  on 
the  strings,  and  renders  full-pressure  of  the 
string  easy.  Correctly  done,  a  brilliance  re- 
sults, especially  in  scale  and  passage  work, 


Edmund  Severn  237 

which  can  be  acquired  in  no  other  manner,  each 
note  partaking  somewhat  of  the  quality  of  the 
open  string.  As  for  intonation — that  is 
largely  a  question  of  listening.  To  really  lis- 
ten to  oneself  is  as  necessary  as  it  is  rare.  It 
would  take  a  volume  to  cover  that  subject 
alone.  We  hear  much  about  the  use  of  the 
vibrato  these  days.  It  was  not  so  when  I  was 
a  student.  I  can  remember  when  it  was 
laughed  at  by  the  purists  as  an  Italian  evidence 
of  bad  taste.  My  teachers  decried  it,  yet  if  we 
could  hear  the  great  players  of  the  past,  we 
would  be  astonished  at  their  frugal  use  of  it. 

''One  should  remember  in  this  connection 
that  there  was  a  conflict  among  singers  for 
many  years  as  to  whether  the  straight  tone  as 
cultivated  by  the  English  oratorio  singers,  or 
the  vibrated  tone  of  the  Italians  were  correct. 
As  usual.  Nature  won  out.  The  correctly  vi- 
brated voice  outlasted  the  other  form  of  pro- 
duction, thus  proving  its  lawful  basis.  But 
to-day  the  vibrato  is  frequently  made  to  cover 
a  multitude  of  violin  sins. 

"It  is  accepted  by  many  as  a  substitute  for 
genuine  warmth  and  it  is  used  as  a  camonflage 
to  'put  over'  some  very  bad  art  in  the  shape  of 
poor  tone-quality,  intonation  and  general  slop- 
piness  of  technic.     Why,  then,  has  it  come  into 


238  Violin  Mastery 

general  use  during  the  last  twenty-five  years? 
Simply  because  it  is  based  on  the  correctly 
produced  human  voice.  The  old  players,  es- 
pecially those  of  the  German  school,  said,  and 
some  still  say,  the  vibrato  should  only  be  used 
at  the  climax  of  a  melody.  If  we  listen  to  a 
Sembrich  or  a  Bonci,  however,  we  hear  a  vi- 
bration on  every  tone.  Let  us  not  forget  that 
the  violin  is  a  singing  instrument  and  that  even 
Joachim  said:  'We  must  imitate  the  human 
voice.'  This,  I  think,  disposes  of  the  case 
finally  and  we  must  admit  that  every  little  boy 
or  girl  with  a  natural  vibrato  is  more  correct 
in  that  part  of  his  tone-production  than  many 
of  the  great  masters  of  the  past.  As  the  Ne- 
gro pastor  said:  'The  world  do  move!' 

VIOLIN   MASTERY 

"Are  'mastery  of  the  violin'  and  *  Violin 
Mastery'  synonymous  in  my  mind?  Yes  and 
no:  'Violin  Mastery'  may  be  taken  to  mean 
that  technical  mastery  wherewith  one  is  en- 
abled to  perform  any  work  in  the  entire  litera- 
ture of  the  instrument  with  precision,  but  not 
necessarily  with  feeling  for  its  beauty  or  its 
emotional  content.  In  this  sense,  in  these  days 
of  improved  violin  pedagogy,  such  mastery  is 


Edmund  Severn  239 

not  uncommon.  But  'Violin  Mastery'  may 
also  be  understood  to  mean,  not  merely  a  cold 
though  flawless  technic,  but  its  living,  glowing 
product  when  used  to  express  the  emotions 
suggested  by  the  music  of  the  masters.  This 
latter  kind  of  violin  mastery  is  rare  indeed. 

"One  who  makes  technic  an  end  travels  light, 
and  should  reach  his  destination  more  quickly. 
But  he  whose  goal  is  music  with  its  thousand- 
hued  beauties,  with  its  call  for  the  exertion  of 
human  and  spiritual  emotion,  sets  forth  on  a 
journey  without  end.  It  is  plain,  however, 
that  this  is  the  only  journey  worth  taking  with 
the  violin  as  a  traveling  companion.  'Violin 
Mastery',  then,  means  to  me  technical  profi- 
ciency used  to  the  highest  extent  possible,  for 
artistic  ends!" 


XXI 
ALBERT  SPALDING 

THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  FACTOR  IN  THE 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  AN  ARTIST 

For  the  duration  of  the  war  Albert  Spald- 
ing the  violinist  became  Albert  Spalding 
the  soldier.  As  First  Lieutenant  in  the  Avia- 
tion Service,  U.  S.  A.,  he  maintained  the 
ideals  of  civilization  on  the  Italian  front 
with  the  same  devotion  he  gave  to  those  of  Art 
in  the  piping  times  of  peace.  As  he  himself 
said  not  so  very  long  ago:  "You  cannot  do  two 
things,  and  do  them  properly,  at  the  same  time. 
At  the  present  moment  there  is  more  music 
for  me  in  the  factories  gloriously  grinding  out 
planes  and  motors  than  in  a  symphony  of  Bee- 
thoven. And  to-day  I  would  rather  run  on 
an  office-boy's  errand  for  my  country  and  do 
it  as  well  as  I  can,  if  it's  to  serve  my  country, 
than  to  play  successfully  a  Bach  Chaconne; 
and  I  would  rather  hear  a  well  directed  bat- 
tery of  American  guns  blasting  the  Road  of 

240 


i  opt/riiiht  hi/  Mntzenf.   ('hit'Ofjo. 


Albert  Spalding 


Albert  Spalding  241 

Peace  and  Victorious  Liberty  than  the  com- 
bined applause  of  ten  thousand  audiences.  For 
it  is  my  conviction  that  Art  has  as  much  at 
stake  in  this  War  as  Democracy." 

Yet  Lieutenant  Spalding,  despite  the  ardu- 
ous demands  of  his  patriotic  duties,  found 
time  to  answer  some  questions  of  the  writer  in 
the  interests  of  "Violin  Mastery"  which,  rep- 
resenting the  views  and  opinions  of  so  eminent 
and  distinctive!}^  American  a  violinist,  cannot 
fail  to  interest  every  lover  of  the  Art.  Writing 
from  Rome  (Sept.  9, 1918),  Lieutenant  Spald- 
ing modestly  said  that  his  answers  to  the  ques- 
tions asked  "will  have  to  be  simple  and  short, 
because  my  time  is  very  limited,  and  then,  too, 
having  been  out  of  music  for  more  than  a  year, 
I  feel  it  difficult  to  deal  in  more  than  a  general 
way  with  some  of  the  questions  asked." 

VIOLIN  MASTERY 

"As  to  'Violin  Mastery'?  To  me  it  means 
effortless  mastery  of  details ;  the  correlating  of 
them  into  a  perfect  whole;  the  subjecting  of 
them  to  the  expression  of  an  architecture  which 
is  music.  'Violin  Mastery'  means  technical 
mastery  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  It  means 
a  facility  which  will  enable  the  interpreter  to 


242  Violin  Mastery 

forget  difficulties,  and  to  express  at  once  in  a 
language  that  will  seem  clear,  simple  and  elo- 
quent, that  which  in  the  hands  of  others  ap- 
pears difficult,  obtuse  and  dull. 

THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  FACTOR  IN  THE  DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF  AN  ARTIST 

"As  to  the  processes,  mental  and  technical, 
which  make  an  artist?  These  different  proc- 
esses, mental  and  technical,  are  too  many,  too 
varied  and  involved  to  invite  an  answer  in  a 
short  space  of  time.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
most  important  mental  process,  to  my  mind,  is 
the  development  of  a  perception  of  beautj^ 
All  the  perseverance  in  the  study  of  music,  all 
the  application  devoted  to  it,  is  not  worth  a 
tinker's  dam,  unless  accompanied  by  this 
awakening  to  the  perception  of  beauty.  And 
with  regard  to  the  influence  of  teachers?  Since 
all  teachers  vary  greatly,  the  student  should 
not  limit  himself  to  his  own  personal  masters. 
The  true  student  of  Art  should  be  able  to  de- 
rive benefit  and  instruction  from  every  beau- 
tiful work  of  Art  that  he  hears  or  sees ;  other- 
wise he  will  be  limited  by  the  technical  and 
mental  limitations  of  his  own  prejudices  and 
jealousies.     One's    greatest    difficulties    may 


Albert  Spalding  243 

turn  out  to  be  one's  greatest  aids  in  striving 
toward  artistic  results.  By  this  I  mean  that 
nothing  is  more  fatally  pernicious  for  the  true 
artist  than  the  precocious  facility  which  invites 
cheap  success.  Therefore  I  make  the  state- 
ment that  one's  greatest  difficulties  are  one's 
greatest  facilities. 

A  LESS  DEVELOPED   PHASE   OF   VIOLIN   TECHNIC 

"In  the  technical  field,  the  phase  of  violin 
technic  which  is  less  developed,  it  seems  to  me 
is,  in  most  cases,  bowing.  One  often  notes  a 
highly  developed  left  hand  technic  coupled 
with  a  monotonous  and  oftentimes  faulty  bow- 
ing. The  colo7^  and  variety  of  a  violinist's  art 
must  come  largely  from  his  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  all  that  can  be  accomplished  by  the 
bow  arm.  The  break  or  change  from  a  down- 
bow  to  an  up-bow,  or  vice  versa,  should  be  un- 
der such  control  as  to  make  it  perceptible  only 
when  it  maj^  be  desirable  to  use  it  for  color  or 
accentuation. 

GOOD  AND  BAD  HANDS :  MENTAL  STUDY 

"The  influence  of  the  physical  conformation 
of  bow  hand  and  string  hand  on  actual  play- 


244  Violin  Mastery 

ing?  There  are  no  'good'  or  'bad'  bow  hands 
or  string  hands  (unless  they  be  deformed) ; 
there  are  only  'good'  and  'bad'  heads.  By  this 
I  mean  that  the  finest  development  of  technic 
comes  from  the  head,  not  from  the  hand. 
Quickness  of  thought  and  action  is  what  dis- 
tinguishes the  easy  player  from  the  clumsy 
player.  Students  should  develop  mental 
study  even  of  technical  details — this,  of  course, 
in  addition  to  the  physical  practice;  for  this 
mental  study  is  of  the  highest  importance  in 
developing  the  student  so  that  he  can  gain  that 
effortless  mastery  of  detail  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken. 

ADVANTAGE  AND  DISADVANTAGE  OF  CONCERT  AT- 
TENDANCE FOR  THE  STUDENT 

"Concerts  undoubtedly  have  great  value  in 
developing  the  student  technically  and  men- 
tally; but  too  often  they  have  a  directly  con- 
trary effect.  I  think  there  is  a  very  doubt- 
ful benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  present 
habit,  as  illustrated  in  New  York,  London,  or 
other  centers,  of  the  student  attending  con- 
certs, sometimes  as  many  as  two  or  three  a  day. 
This  habit  dwarfs  the  development  of  real  ap- 
preciation, as  the  student,  under  these  condi- 


Albert  Spalding  245 

tions,  can  little  appreciate  true  works  of  art 
when  he  has  crammed  his  head  so  full  of  truck, 
and  worn  out  his  faculties  of  concentration  un- 
til listening  to  music  becomes  a  mechanical 
mental  process.  The  indiscriminate  attending 
of  concerts,  to  my  mind,  has  an  absolutely  per- 
nicious effect  on  the  student. 


NATIONALITY  AS  A  FORMATIVE  INFLUENCE 

"Nationality  and  national  feeling  have  a 
very  real  influence  in  the  development  of  an 
artist;  but  this  influence  is  felt  subconsciously 
more  than  consciously,  and  it  reacts  more  on 
the  creative  than  on  the  interpretative  artist. 
By  this  I  mean  that  the  interpretative  artist, 
while  reserving  the  right  to  his  individual  ex- 
pression, should  subject  himself  to  what  he 
considers  to  have  been  the  artistic  impulse,  the 
artistic  intentions  of  the  composer.  As  to  type 
music  to  whose  appeal  I  as  an  American  am 
susceptible,  I  confess  to  a  very  sympathetic 
reaction  to  the  syncopated  rhythms  known  as 
'rag-time,'  and  which  appear  to  be  especially 
American  in  character."  For  the  benefit  of 
those  readers  who  may  not  chance  to  know  it. 
Lieutenant  Spalding's  "Alabama,"  a  South- 
ern melody  and  dance  in  plantation  style,  for 


246  Violin  Mastery 

violin  and  piano,  represents  a  very  delightful] 
creative  exploitation  of  these  rhythms.  The 
writer  makes  mention  of  the  fact  since  with  re- 
gard to  this  and  other  of  his  own  compositions 
Lieutenant  Spalding  would  only  state:  "I 
felt  that  I  had  something  to  say  and,  there- 
fore, tried  to  say  it.  Whether  what  I  have  to 
say  is  of  any  interest  to  others  is  not  for  me  to 
judge. 

PLAYING   WHILE   IN    SERVICE 

"Do  I  play  at  all  while  in  Service?  I  gave 
up  all  plajang  in  public  when  entering  the 
Army  a  year  ago,  and  to  a  great  extent  all 
private  playing  as  well.  I  have  on  one  or  two 
occasions  played  at  charity  concerts  during  the 
past  year,  once  in  Rome,  and  once  in  the  little 
town  in  Italy  near  the  aviation  camp  at  which 
I  was  stationed  at  the  time.  I  have  purposely 
refused  all  other  requests  to  play  because  one 
cannot  do  two  things  at  once,  and  do  them 
properly.  My  time  now  belongs  to  my  coun- 
try: When  we  have  peace  again  I  shall  hope 
once  more  to  devote  it  to  Art." 


XXI  r 
THEODORE  SPIERING 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  BOW  EXERCISES  TO 
THE  STUDY  OF  KREUTZER 

A.  Walter  Kramer  has  said:  "Mr.  Spier- 
ing  knows  how  serious  a  study  can  be  made  of 
the  violin,  because  he  has  made  it.  He  has  in- 
vestigated the  'how'  and  'why'  of  every  detail, 
and  what  he  has  to  say  about  the  violin  is  the 
utterance  of  a  big  musician,  one  who  has  mas- 
tered the  instrument."  And  Theodore  Spier- 
ing,  solo  artist  and  conductor,  as  a  teacher  has 
that  wider  horizon  which  has  justified  thei 
statement  made  that  "he  is  animated  by  the 
thoughts  and  ideals  which  stimulate  a  Godow- 
sky  or  Busoni."  Such  being  the  case,  it  was 
with  unmixed  satisfaction  that  the  writer  found 
Mr.  Spiering  willing  to  give  him  the  benefit 
of  some  of  those  constructive  ideas  of  his  as  re- 
gards violin  study  which  have  established  his 
reputation  so  prominently  in  that  field. 

247 


248  Violin  Mastery 


TWO  TYPES  OF  STUDENTS 

"There  are  certain  underlying  principleSj 
which  govern  every  detail  of  the  violinist's 
Art,"  said  Mr.  Spiering,  "and  unless  the  vio- 
linist fully  appreciates  their  significance,  and 
has  the  intelligence  and  patience  to  apply  them 
in  everything  he  does,  he  will  never  achieve 
that  absolute  command  over  his  instrument 
which  mastery  implies. 

"It  is  a  peculiar  fact  that  a  large  percentage 
of  students — probably  believing  that  they  can 
reach  their  goal  by  a  short  cut — resent  the 
mental  effort  required  to  master  these  princi- 
ples, the  passive  resistance,  evident  in  their 
work,  preventing  them  from  deriving  true 
benefit  from  their  studies.  They  form  that 
large  class  which  learns  merely  by  imitation, 
and  invariably  retrograde  the  moment  they  are 
no  longer  under  the  teacher's  supervision. 

"The  smaller  group,  with  an  analytical  bent 
of  mind,  largely  subject  themselves  to  the 
needed  mental  drill  and  thus  provide  for  them- 
selves that  inestimable  basic  quality  that 
makes  them  independent  and  capable  of  de- 
veloping their  talent  to  its  full  fruition. 


Theodore  Spiering 


Theodore  Spiering  249 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  PROCESSES  COORDINATED 

"The  conventional  manner  of  teaching  pro- 
vided an  inordinate  number  of  mechanical  ex- 
ercises in  order  to  overcome  so  called  'tech- 
nical difficulties.'  Only  the  prima  facie  dis- 
turbance, however,  was  thus  taken  into  con- 
sideration— not  its  actual  cause.  The  result 
was,  that  notwithstanding  the  great  amount  of 
labor  thus  expended,  the  effort  had  to  be  re- 
peated each  time  the  problem  was  confronted. 
Aside  from  the  obviouslj"  uncertain  results  se- 
cured in  this  manner,  it  meant  deadening  of 
the  imagination  and  cramping  of  interpreta- 
tive possibilities.  It  is  onty  possible  to  reduce 
to  a  minimum  the  element  of  chance  by  scru- 
pulously carrying  out  the  dictates  of  the  laws 
governing  vital  principles.  Analysis  and  the 
severest  self-criticism  are  the  means  of  deter- 
mination as  to  whether  theory  and  practice 
conform  with  one  another. 

"Mental  preparedness  (Marcus  Aurelius 
calls  it  'the  good  ordering  of  the  mind')  is  the 
keynote  of  technical  control.  Together  with 
the  principle  of  relaxation  it  provides  the 
player  with  the  most  effective  means  of  estab- 
lishing precise  and  sensitive  cooperation  be- 


250  Violin  Mastery 

tween  mental  and  physical  processes.  Muscu- 
lar relaxation  at  will  is  one  of  the  results  of 
this  cooperation.  It  makes  sustained  effort 
possible  (counteracting  the  contraction  ordi- 
narily resulting  therefrom),  and  it  is  freedom 
of  movement  more  than  anything  else  that 
tends  to  establish  confidence. 


THE   TWO-FOLD    VALUE    OF    CELEBRATED   STUDY 
WORKS 

"The  study  period  of  the  average  American 
is  limited.  It  has  been  growing  less  year  by 
year.  Hence  the  teacher  has  had  to  redouble 
his  efforts.  The  desire  to  give  my  pupils  thej 
essentials  of  technical  control  in  their  most  con- 
centrated and  immediately  applicable  form, 
have  led  me  to  evolve  a  series  of  'bow  exer- 
cises,' which,  however,  do  not  merely  pursue 
a  mechanical  purpose.  Primarily  enforcing 
the  carrying  out  of  basic  principles  as  pertain- 
ing to  the  bow — and  establishing  or  correcting 
(as  the  case  may  be)  arm  and  hand  (right 
arm)  positions,  they  suppty  the  means  of  cre- 
ating a  larger  interpretative  style. 

"I  use  the  Kreutzer  studies  as  the  medium  of 
these  bow-exercises,  since  the  application  of 
new  technical  ideas  is  easier  when  the  music  it- 


Theodore  Spiering  251 

self  is  familiar  to  the  student.  I  have  a  two- 
fold object  in  mind  when  I  review  these  stud- 
ies in  my  particular  manner,  technic  and  ap- 
preciation. I  might  add  that  not  only  Kreut- 
zer,  but  Fiorillo  and  Rode — in  fact  all  the  cele- 
brated 'Caprices,'  with  the  possible  exception 
of  those  of  Paganini — are  viewed  almost  en- 
tirely from  the  purely  technical  side,  as  be- 
longing to  the  classroom,  because  their  musical 
qualities  have  not  been  sufficiently  pointed  out. 
Rode,  in  particular,  is  a  veritable  musical  treas- 
ure trove. 

THE   APPLICATION    OF   BOW   EXERCISES   TO   THE 
STUDY  OF  KREUTZER 

"How  do  I  use  the  Kreutzer  studies  to  de- 
velop style  and  technic?  By  making  the  stu- 
dent study  them  in  such  wise  that  the  follow- 
ing principles  are  emphasized  in  his  work: 
control  before  action  (mental  direction  at  all 
times)  ;  relaxation;  and  observance  of  string 
levels;  for  unimpeded  movement  is  more  im- 
portant than  pressure  as  regards  the  carrying 
tone.  These  principles  are  among  the  most 
important  pertaining  to  right  arm  technic. 

"In  Study  No.  2  (version  1,  up-strokes  only, 
version  2,  down-strokes  only),  I  have  my  pu- 


252  Violin  Mastery 

pils  use  the  full  arm  stroke  (grand  detacTie). 
In  version  1,  the  bow  is  taken  from  the  string 
after  completion  of  stroke — but  in  such  a  waj'] 
that  the  vibrations  of  the  string  are  not  inter- 
fered with.  Complete  relaxation  is  insured  by 
release  of  the  thumb — the  bow  being  caught 
in  a  casual  manner,  third  and  fourth  fingers 
slipping  from  their  normal  position  on  stick — 
and  holding,  but  not  tightly  clasping,  the  bow. 

"Version  2  calls  for  a  return  down-stroke j 
the  return  part  of  the  stroke  being  accom- 
plished over  the  string,  but  making  no  division 
in  stroke,  no  hesitating  before  the  return.  Re- 
laxation is  secured  as  before.  Rapidity  of 
stroke,  elimination  of  impediment  ( faulty  hand 
or  arm  position  and  unnecessary  upper  arm 
action) ,  is  the  aim  of  this  exercise.  The  pause 
between  each  stroke — caused  by  relinquishing 
the  hold  on  the  bow — reminds  the  student  that 
mental  control  should  at  all  times  be  para- 
mount: that  analysis  of  technical  detail  is  of 
vital  importance. 

"In  Study  No.  7  I  employ  the  same  vigor- 
ous full  arm  strokes  as  in  No.  2:  the  up  and 
down  bows  as  indicated  in  the  original  ver- 
sion. The  bow  is  raised  from  the  strings  after 
each  note,  by  means  of  hand  (little  finger,  first 


Theodore  Spiering  253 

and  thumb)  not  by  arm  action.  Normal  hand 
position  is  retained :  thumb  not  released. 

"The  observance  of  string  levels  is  very  es- 
sential. While  the  stroke  is  in  progress  thej 
arm  must  not  leave  its  level  in  an  anticipatory 
movement  to  reach  the  next  level.  Especially 
after  the  down-stroke  is  it  advisable  to  Terify 
the  arm  position  with  regard  to  this  feature. 

"No.  8  affords  opportunity  for  a  resume  of 
the  work  done  in  Nos.  2  and  7 : 


"It  is  evident  that  the  tempo  of  this  study 
must  be  very  much  reduced  in  speed.  The  re- 
turn down-stroke  as  in  No.  2:  the  second 
down-stroke  as  in  No.  7:  the  up-strokes  as  in 
No.  2. 

"In  Study  No.  5  I  use  the  hand-stroke  only 
— at  the  frog — arm  absolutely  immobile,  with 
no  attempt  at  tone.  This  exercise  represents) 
the  first  attempt  at  dissecting  the  martele 
idea:  precise  timing  of  pressure,  movement 
(stroke),  and  relaxation.  The  pause  between 
the  strokes  is  utilized  to  learn  the  value  of  left 
hand  preparedness,  with  the  fingers  in  place 
before  bow  action. 


254 


Violin  Mastery 


"In  Study  No.  13  I  develop  the  principles 
of  string  crossing,  of  the  extension  stroke,  and 
articulation.  String  crossing  is  the  main  fea- 
ture of  the  exercise.  I  employ  three  versions, 
in  order  to  accomplish  my  aim.  In  version  1 
I  consider  only  the  crossing  from  a  higher  to 
a  lower  level: 


version  2: 


version  3  is  the  original  version. 
1  and  2  I  omit  all  repetitions : 


In  versions 


Articulation  is  one  of  the  main  points  at  issue 
— the  middle  note  is  generally  inarticulate. 
For  further  string  crossing  analysis  I  use 
Kreutzer's  No.  25.  Study  No.  10  I  carry  out 
as  a  martele  study,  v^^ith  the  string  crossing 
very  much  in  evidence ;  establishing  observance 
of  the  notes  occurring  on  the  same  string  level, 
consequently  compelling  a  more  judicious  use 
of  the  so-called  wrist  movement  (not  merely 


Theodore  Spiering  255 

developing  a  supple  wrist,  with  indefinite 
crossing  movements,  which  in  many  cases  are 
applied  by  the  player  without  regard  to  actual 
string  crossing)  and  in  consequence  securing 
stability  of  bow  on  string  when  string  level  is 
not  changed,  this  result  being  secured  even  in 
rapid  passage  work. 

"In  Studies  11,  19  and  21  I  cover  shifting 
and  left  thumb  action :  in  No.  9,  finger  action — 
flexibilitj^  and  evenness,  the  left  thumb  relaxed 
— the  fundamental  idea  of  the  trill.  After  the 
interrupted  types  of  bowing  (grand  detachc, 
martele,  staccato)  have  been  carefully  studied, 
the  continuous  types  (detaclie,  legato  and  spic- 
cato)  are  then  taken  up,  and  in  part  the  same 
studies  again  used:  2,  7,  8.  Lastly  the  slurred 
legato  comes  under  consideration  (Studies  9, 
11,  14,  22,  27,  29).  Shifting,  extension  and 
string  crossing  have  all  been  previously  con- 
sidered, and  hence  the  legato  should  be  al- 
lowed to  take  its  even  course. 

"Although  I  do,  temporarily,  place  these 
studies  on  a  purely  mechanical  level,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  they  thus  serve  to  call  into  being 
a  broader  musical  appreciation  for  the  whole 
set.  For  I  have  found  that  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  pupils  who  come  to  me  have  all  played 
their  Kreutzer,  with  very  few  exceptions  have 


256  Violin  Mastery 

they  realized  the  musical  message  which  it  con- 
tains. The  time  when  the  student  body  will 
have  learned  to  depict  successfully  musical 
character — even  in  studies  and  caprices — will 
mark  the  fulfillment  of  the  teacher's  task  with 
regard  to  the  cultivation  of  the  right  arm — 
which  is  essentially  the  teacher's  domain. 

SOME  OF  MR.  SPIERING's  OWN  STUDY  SOUVENIRS 

"It  may  interest  you  to  know,"  Mr.  Spiering 
said  in  reply  to  a  question,  "that  I  began  my 
teaching  career  in  Chicago  immediately  fol- 
lowing my  four  years  with  Joachim  in  Ber- 
lin. It  was  natural  that  I  should  first  commit 
myself  to  the  pedagogic  methods  of  the  Hoch- 
scTiule,  which  to  a  great  extent,  however,  I  dis- 
carded as  my  own  views  crystallized.  I  found 
that  too  much  emphasis  allotted  the  wrist 
stroke  (a  misnomer,  by  the  way),  was  bound 
to  result  in  too  academic  a  style.  By  trans- 
ferring primary  importance  to  the  control  of 
the  full  arm-stroke — with  the  hand-stroke  in- 
cidentally completing  the  control — I  felt  that 
I  was  better  able  to  reflect  the  larger  interpre- 
tative ideals  which  my  years  of  musical  devel- 
opment were  creating  for  me.  Chamber 
music — a  youthful  passion — led  me  to  interest 


Theodore  Spiering  257 

myself  in  symphonic  work  and  conducting. 
These  activities  not  only  reacted  favorably  on 
my  solo  playing,  but  influenced  my  develop- 
ment as  regards  the  broader,  more  dramatic 
style,  the  grand  manner  in  interpretation.  It 
is  this  realization  that  places  me  in  a  position 
to  earnestly  advise  the  ambitious  student  not 
to  disregard  the  great  artistic  benefits  to  be 
derived  from  the  cultivation  of  chamber  music 
and  symphonic  playing. 

"I  might  call  my  teaching  ideals  a  combina- 
tion of  those  of  the  Franco-Belgian  and  Ger- 
man schools.  To  the  former  I  attribute  my 
preference  for  the  large  sweep  of  the  bow-arm, 
its  style  and  tonal  superiority;  to  the  latter, 
vigor  of  interpretation  and  attention  to  musi- 
cal detail. 

VIOLIN   MASTERY 

"How  do  I  define  'Violin  Mastery  ?  The 
violinist  who  has  succeeded  in  eliminating  all 
superfluous  tension  or  physical  resistance, 
whose  mental  control  is  such  that  the  technic 
of  the  left  hand  and  right  arm  has  become  co- 
ordinate, thus  forming  a  perfect  mechanism 
not  working  at  cross-purposes;  who,  further- 
more, is  so  well  poised  that  he  never  oversteps 
the  boundaries  of  good  taste  in  his  interpreta- 


258  Violin  Mastery 

tions,  though  vitally  alive  to  the  human  ele- 
ment ;  who,  finally,  has  so  broad  an  outlook  on 
life  and  Art  that  he  is  able  to  reveal  the  trans- 
cendent spirit  characterizing  the  works  of  the 
great  masters — such  a  violinist  has  truly  at- 
tained mastery  1" 


XXIII 

JACQUES  THIBAUD 

THE  IDEAL  PROGRAM 

Jacques  Thibaud,  whose  gifts  as  an  inter- 
preting artist  have  brought  him  so  many 
friends  and  admirers  in  the  United  States,  is 
the  foremost  representative  of  the  modern 
French  school  of  vioHn-playing.  And  as  such 
he  has  held  his  own  ever  since,  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  he  resigned  his  rank  as  concert-master 
of  the  Colonne  orchestra,  to  dedicate  his  tal- 
ents exclusively  to  the  concert  stage.  So  great 
an  authority  as  the  last  edition  of  the  Riemann 
Musik-Lexicon  cannot  forbear,  even  in  1915, 
to  emphasize  his  "technic,  absolutely  developed 
in  its  every  detail,  and  his  fiery  and  poetic  man- 
ner of  interpretation." 

But  Mr.  Thibaud  does  not  see  any  great  dif- 
ference between  the  ideals  of  la  grande  ecole 
beige,  that  of  Vieuxtemps,  De  Beriot,  Leon- 
ard, Massart  and  Marsick,  whose  greatest 
present-day  exponent  is  Eugene  Ysaye,  and 

259 


260  Violin  Mastery 

the  French.  Himself  a  pupil  of  ^larsick,  he 
inherited  the  French  traditions  of  Alard 
through  his  father,  who  was  Alard 's  i)upil  and 
handed  them  on  to  his  son.  "The  two  schools 
have  married  and  are  as  one,"  declared  Mr. 
Thibaud.  "They  may  differ  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  music,  but  to  me  they  seem  to  have 
merged  so  far  as  their  systems  of  finger  tech- 
nic,  bowing  and  tone  production  goes. 

THE  GREATEST  DIFFICULTY  TO  OVERCOME 

"You  ask  me  what  is  most  difficult  in  play- 
ing the  violin?  It  is  bowing.  Bowing  makes 
up  approximately  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  sum 
total  of  violinistic  difficulties.  One  reason  for 
it  is  that  many  teachers  with  excellent  ideas  on 
the  subject  present  it  to  their  pupils  in  too  com- 
plicated a  manner.  The  bow  must  be  used  in 
an  absolutely  natural  way,  and  over  elabora- 
tion in  explaining  what  should  be  a  simple  and 
natural  development  often  prevents  the  stu- 
dent from  securing  a  good  bowing,  the  end  in 
view.  Sarasate  (he  was  an  intimate  friend  of 
mine)  always  used  his  bow  in  the  most  nat- 
ural way,  his  control  of  it  was  unsought  and 
unconscious.  Were  I  a  teacher  I  should  not 
say :  'You  must  bow  as  I  do' ;  but  rather :  'Find 


Jacwji  Ks  Thibaud 


a^g^^f*"^ 


Jacques  Thibaud  261 

the  way  of  bowing  most  convenient  and  nat- 
ural to  you  and  use  it!'  Bowing  is  largely  a 
physical  and  individual  matter.  I  am  slender 
but  have  long,  large  fingers;  Kreisler  is  a 
larger  man  than  I  am  but  his  fingers  are  small. 
It  stands  to  reason  that  there  must  be  a  differ- 
ence in  the  way  in  which  we  hold  and  use  the 
bow.  The  difference  between  a  great  and  a 
mediocre  teacher  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  first 
recognizes  that  bowing  is  an  individual  mat- 
ter, different  in  the  case  of  each  individual  pu- 
pil ;  and  that  the  greatest  perfection  is  attained 
by  the  development  of  the  individual's  capa- 
bilities within  his  own  norm. 

MAESICK  AS  A  TEACHER 

"Marsick  was  a  teacher  of  this  type.  At 
each  of  the  lessons  I  took  from  him  at  the  Con- 
servatoire (we  went  to  him  three  days  a  week) , 
he  would  give  me  a  new  etude — Gavinies, 
Rode,  Fiorillo,  Dont — to  prepare  for  the  next 
lesson.  We  also  studied  all  of  Paganini,  and 
works  by  Ernst  and  Spohr.  For  our  bow 
technic  he  employed  difficult  passages  made 
into  etudes.  Scales — the  violinist's  daily 
bread — we  practiced  day  in,  day  out.  Marsick 
played  the  piano  well,   and  could  improvise 


262  Violin  Mastery 

marvelous  accompaniments  on  his  violin  when 
his  pupils  played.  I  continued  my  studies 
with  Mar  sick  even  after  I  left  the  Conserva- 
toire. With  him  I  believe  that  three  essen- 
tials— absolute  purity  of  pitch,  equality  of  tone 
and  sonority  of  tone,  in  connection  with  the 
bow — are  the  base  on  which  everything  else 
rests. 


THE  MECHANICAL  VERSUS  THE  NATURAL  IN  VIO- 
LIN   PLAYING 

"Sevcik's  purely  soulless  and  mechanical 
system  has  undoubtedly  produced  a  number 
of  excellent  mechanicians  of  the  violin.  But 
it  has  just  as  unquestionably  killed  real  talent. 
Kubelik — there  was  a  genuinely  talented  vio- 
linist! If  he  had  had  another  teacher  instead 
of  Sevcik  he  would  have  been  great,  for  he  had 
great  gifts.  Even  as  it  was  he  played  well, 
but  I  consider  him  one  of  Sevcik's  victims. 
As  an  illustration  of  how  the  technical  point 
of  view  is  thrust  to  the  fore  by  this  system 
I  remember  some  fifteen  years  ago  Kubelik 
and  I  were  staying  at  the  same  villa  in  Monte- 
Carlo,  where  we  were  to  play  the  Beethoven 
concerto,  each  of  us,  in  concert,  two  days 
apart.     Kubelik  spent  the  live-long  day  before 


Jacques  Thibaud  263 

the  concert  practicing  Sevcik  exercises.  I 
read  and  studied  Beethoven's  score,  but  did 
not  touch  my  viohn.  I  went  to  hear  Kubelik 
play  the  concerto,  and  he  played  it  well;  but 
then,  so  did  I,  when  my  turn  came.  And  I 
feel  sure  I  got  more  out  of  it  musically  and 
spiritually,  than  I  w  ould  have  if  instead  of  con- 
centrating on  its  meaning,  its  musical  message, 
I  had  prepared  the  concerto  as  a  problem  in 
violin  mechanics  whose  key  was  contained  in  a 
number  of  dry  technical  exercises  arbitrarily 
laid  down. 

"Technic,  in  the  case  of  the  more  advanced 
violinist,  should  not  have  a  place  in  the  fore- 
ground of  his  consciousness.  I  heard  Rubin- 
stein play  when  a  boy — what  did  his  false  notes 
amount  to  compared  with  his  wonderful  man- 
ner of  disclosing  the  spirit  of  the  things  he 
played!  Plante,  the  Parisian  pianist,  a  kind 
of  keyboard  cyclone,  once  expressed  the  idea 
admirably  to  an  English  society  lady.  She 
had  told  him  he  was  a  greater  pianist  than 
Rubinstein,  because  the  latter  played  so  many 
wrong  notes.  'Ah,  Madame,'  answered 
Plante,  *I  would  rather  be  able  to  play  Rubin- 
stein's wrong  notes  than  all  my  own  correct 
ones.'  A  violinist's  natural  manner  of  play- 
ing is  the  one  he  should  cultivate ;  since  it  is  in- 


264  Violin  Mastery 

dividual,  it  really  represents  him.  And  a 
teacher  or  a  colleague  of  greater  fame  does  him 
no  kindness  if  he  encourages  him  to  distrust 
his  own  powers  by  too  good  naturedly  'show- 
ing' him  how  to  do  this,  that  or  the  other.  I 
mean,  when  the'  student  can  work  out  his  prob- 
lem himself  at  the  expense  of  a  little  initiative. 
"When  I  was  j^ounger  I  once  had  to  play 
Bach's  G  minor  fugue  at  a  concert  in  Brus- 
sels. I  was  living  at  Ysaye's  home,  and  since 
I  had  never  played  the  composition  in  public^ 
before,  I  began  to  worry  about  its  interpre- 
tation. So  I  asked  Ysaj'^e  (thinking  he  would 
simply  show  me),  'How  ought  I  to  play  this 
fugue?'  The  Master  reflected  a  moment  and 
then  dashed  my  hopes  by  answering:  'Tu 
nriemhetes!'  (You  bore  me!)  'This  fugue 
should  be  played  well,  that's  all!'  At  first  I 
was  angry,  but  thinking  it  over,  I  realized  that 
if  he  had  shown  me,  I  would  have  played  it  just 
as  he  did ;  while  what  he  wanted  me  to  do  was 
to  work  out  my  own  version,  and  depend  on  my 
own  initiative — which  I  did,  for  I  had  no 
choice.  It  is  by  means  of  concentration  on  the 
higher,  the  interpretative  phases  of  one's  Art 
that  the  technical  side  takes  its  proper,  sec- 
ondary place.  Technic  does  not  exist  for  me 
in  the  sense  of  a  certain  quantity  of  mechan- 


Jacques  Thihaud  265 


ical  work  which  I  must  do.  I  find  it  out  of 
the  question  to  do  absolutely  mechanical  tech- 
nical work  of  any  length  of  time.  In  realiz- 
ing the  three  essentials  of  good  violin  playing 
which  I  have  already  mentioned,  Ysaye  and 
Sarasate  are  my  ideals. 

SARASATE 

"All  really  good  violinists  are  good  artists. 
Sarasate,  whom  I  knew  so  intimately  and  re- 
member so  well,  was  a  pupil  of  Alard  (my 
father's  teacher).  He  literally  sang  on  the 
violin,  like  a  nightingale.  His  purity  of  in- 
tonation was  remarkable;  and  his  technical 
facility  was  the  most  extraordinary  that  I  have 
ever  seen.  He  handled  his  bow  with  unbe- 
lievable skill.  And  when  he  played,  the  un- 
assuming grace  of  his  movements  won  the 
hearts  of  his  audiences  and  increased  the  en- 
thusiasm awakened  by  his  tremendous  talent. 

"We  other  violinists,  all  of  us,  occasionally 
play  a  false  note,  for  we  are  not  infallible; 
we  may  flat  a  little  or  sharp  a  little.  But 
never,  as  often  as  I  have  heard  Sarasate  play, 
did  I  ever  hear  him  play  a  wrong  note,  one  not 
in  perfect  pitch.  His  Spanish  things  he 
played  like  a  god!     And  he  had  a  wonderful 


266  Violin  Mastery 

gift  of  phrasing  which  gave  a  charm  hard  to 
define  to  whatever  he  played.  And  playing  in 
quartet — the  greatest  solo  violinist  does  not  al- 
waj^s  shine  in  this  genre — ^he  was  admirable. 
Though  he  played  all  the  standard  repertory, 
Bach,  Beethoven,  etc.,  I  can  never  forget  his 
exquisite  rendering  of  modern  works,  espe- 
cially of  a  little  composition  by  Raff,  called 
La  Fee  d' Amour.  He  was  the  first  to 
play  the  violin  concertos  of  Saint- Saens, 
Lalo  and  Max  Bruch.  They  were  all  writ- 
ten for  him,  and  I  doubt  whether  they 
would  have  been  composed  had  not  Sara- 
sate  been  there  to  play  them.  Of  course,  in 
his  own  Spanish  music  he  was  unexcelled — a 
whole  school  of  violin  playing  was  born  and 
died  with  him !  He  had  a  hobby  for  collecting 
canes.  He  had  hundreds  of  them  of  all  kinds, 
and  every  sovereign  in  Europe  had  contributed 
to  his  collection.  I  know  Queen  Christina  of 
Spain  gave  him  no  less  than  twenty.  He  once 
gave  me  a  couple  of  his  canes,  a  great  sign  of 
favor  with  him.  I  have  often  played  quartet 
with  Sarasate,  for  he  adored  quartet  playing, 
and  these  occasions  are  among  my  treasured 
memories. 


Jacques  Thibaud  267 


STRADIVARIUS  AND  GUARNERIUS  PLAYERS 

"My  violin?  It  is  a  Stradivarius — the  same 
which  once  belonged  to  the  celebrated  Baillot. 
I  think  it  is  good  for  a  violin  to  rest,  so  during 
the  three  months  when  I  am  not  playing  in 
concert,  I  send  my  Stradivarius  away  to  the 
instrument  maker's,  and  only  take  it  out  about 
a  month  before  I  begin  to  play  again  in  public. 
What  do  I  use  in  the  meantime?  Caressa,  the 
best  violin  maker  in  Paris,  made  me  an  exact 
copy  of  my  own  Strad,  exact  in  every  little  de- 
tail. It  is  so  good  that  sometimes,  when  cir- 
cumstances compelled  me  to,  I  have  used  it  in 
concert,  though  it  lacks  the  tone-quality  of  the 
original.  This  under-studj^  violin  I  can  use 
for  practice,  and  when  I  go  back  to  the  original, 
as  far  as  the  handling  of  the  instrument  is  con- 
cerned, I  never  know  the  difference. 

"But  I  do  not  think  that  every  one  plays  to 
the  best  advantage  on  a  Strad.  I'm  a  believer 
in  the  theory  that  there  are  natural  Guarner- 
ius  players  and  natural  Stradivarius  players; 
that  certain  artists  do  their  best  with  the  one, 
and  certain  others  with  the  other.  And  I  also 
believe  that  any  one  who  is  'equally'  good  in 
both,  is  great  on  neither.    The  reason  I  believe 


268  Violin  Mastery 

in  Guarnerius  players  and  Stradivarius  play- 
ers as  distinct  is  this.  Some  j'ears  ago  I  had 
a  sudden  call  to  play  in  Ostende.  It  was  a 
concert  engagement  which  I  had  overlooked, 
and  when  it  was  recalled  to  me  I  was  playing 
golf  in  Brittany.  I  at  once  hurried  to  Paris 
to  get  my  violin  from  Caressa,  with  whom  I 
had  left  it,  but — his  safe,  in  which  it  had  been 
put,  and  to  which  he  only  had  the  combina- 
tion, was  locked.  Caressa  himself  was  in 
Milan.  I  telegraphed  him  but  found  that  he 
could  not  get  back  in  time  before  the  concert 
to  release  my  violin.  So  I  telegraphed  Ysaye 
at  Namur,  to  ask  if  he  could  loan  me  a  violin 
for  the  concert.  'Certainly'  he  wired  back.  So 
I  hurried  to  his  home  and,  with  his  usual  gen- 
erosity, he  insisted  on  my  taking  both  his  treas- 
ured Guarnerius  and  his  'Hercules'  Strad 
(afterwards  stolen  from  him  in  Russia),  in 
order  that  I  might  have  my  choice.  His  broth- 
er-in-law and  some  friends  accompanied  me 
from  Namur  to  Ostende — no  great  distance — 
to  hear  the  concert.  Well,  I  played  the  Guar- 
nerius at  rehearsal,  and  when  it  was  over, 
every  one  said  to  me,  'Why,  what  is  the  matter 
with  your  fiddle?  (It  was  the  one  Ysaye  al- 
ways used.)  It  has  no  tone  at  all.'  At  the 
concert  I  played  the  Strad  and  secured  a  big 


Jacques  Thihaud  269 

tone  that  filled  the  hall,  as  every  one  assured 
me.  When  I  brought  back  the  violins  to  Ysaye 
I  mentioned  the  circumstance  to  him,  and  he 
was  so  surprised  and  interested  that  he  took 
them  from  the  cases  and  played  a  bit,  first  on 
one,  then  on  the  other,  a  number  of  times. 
And  invariablj^  when  he  played  the  Strad 
(which,  by  the  way,  he  had  not  used  for  years) 
he,  Ysaye — imagine  it! — could  develop  only  a 
small  tone;  and  when  he  played  the  Guarne- 
rius,  he  never  failed  to  develop  that  great, 
sonorous  tone  we  all  know  and  love  so  well. 
Take  Sarasate,  when  he  lived,  Elman,  myself 
— ^we  all  have  the  habit  of  the  Stradivarius : 
on  the  other  hand  Ysaye  and  Kreisler  are 
Guarnerius  players  par  excellence! 

"Yes,  I  use  a  wire  E  string.  Before  I 
found  out  about  them  I  had  no  end  of  trouble. 
In  New  Orleans  I  snapped  seven  gut  strings 
at  a  single  concert.  Some  say  that  you  can 
tell  the  difference,  when  listening,  between  a 
gut  and  a  wire  E.  I  cannot,  and  I  know  a 
good  many  others  who  cannot.  After  my  last 
New  York  recital  I  had  tea  with  Ysaye,  who 
had  done  me  the  honor  of  attending  it.  'What 
strings  do  you  use?'  he  asked  me,  a  propos  to 
nothing  in  particular.  When  I  told  him  I 
used  a  wire  E  he  confessed  that  he  could  not 


270  Violin  Mastery 

have  told  the  difference.  And,  in  fact,  he  has 
adopted  the  wire  E  just  like  Kreisler,  Maud 
Powell  and  others,  and  has  told  me  that  he  is 
charmed  with  it — for  Ysaye  has  had  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  with  his  strings.  I  shall  con- 
tinue to  use  them  even  after  the  war,  when  it 
will  be  possible  to  obtain  good  gut  strings 
again. 

THE   IDEAL   PROGRAM 

"The  whole  question  of  programs  and  pro- 
gram-making is  an  intricate  one.  In  my  opin- 
ion the  usual  recital  program,  piano,  song  or 
violin,  is  too  long.  The  public  likes  the  re- 
cital by  a  single  vocal  or  instrumental  artist, 
and  financially  and  for  other  practical  reasons 
the  artist,  too,  is  better  satisfied  with  them. 
But  are  they  artistically  altogether  satisfac- 
tory? I  should  like  to  hear  Paderewski  and 
Ysaye,  Bauer  and  Casals,  Kreisler  and  Hof- 
mann  all  playing  at  the  same  recital.  What  a 
variety,  what  a  wealth  of  contrasting  artistic 
enjoyment  such  a  concert  would  afford. 
There  is  nothing  that  is  so  enjoyable  for  the 
true  artist  as  ensemble  playing  with  his  peers. 
Solo  playing  seems  quite  unimportant  beside 
it. 

"I  recall  as  the  most  perfect  and  beautiful 


Jacques  Thibaud  271 

of  all  my  musical  memories,  a  string  quartet 
and  quintet  (with  piano)  session  in  Paris,  in 
my  own  home,  where  we  played  four  of  the 
loveliest  chamber  music  works  ever  written  in 
the  following  combination:  Beethoven's  7th 
quartet  (Ysaye,  Vo.  I,  myself,  Vo.  II,  Kreis- 
ler,  viola — he  plays  it  remarkably  well — and 
Casals,  'cello)  ;  the  Schumann  quartet  (Kreis- 
ler,  Vo.  I,  Ysaye,  Vo.  II,  myself,  viola  and 
Casals,  'cello)  ;  and  the  Mozart  G  major  quar- 
tet (myself,  Vo.  I,  Kreisler,  Vo.  II,  Ysaye, 
viola  and  Casals,  'cello) .  Then  we  telephoned 
to  Pugno,  who  came  over  and  joined  us  and, 
after  an  excellent  dinner,  we  played  the  Cesar 
Franck  piano  quintet.  It  was  the  most  en- 
joyable musical  day  of  my  life.  A  concert 
manager  offered  us  a  fortune  to  play  in  this 
combination — just  two  concerts  in  every  cap- 
ital in  Europe. 

"We  have  not  enough  variety  in  our  con- 
cert programs — not  enough  collaboration. 
The  truth  is  our  form  of  concert,  which  usu- 
ally introduces  only  one  instrument  or  one 
group  of  instruments,  such  as  the  string  quar- 
tet, is  too  uniform  in  color.  I  can  enjoy  play- 
ing a  recital  program  of  virtuose  violin  pieces 
well  enough;  but  I  cannot  help  fearing  that 
many  iBlnd  it  too  unicolored.     Practical  con- 


272  Violin  Mastery 

siderations  do  not  do  away  with  the  truth  of 
an  artistic  contention,  though  they  may  often 
prevent  its  realization.  What  I  enjoy  most, 
musically,  is  to  play  together  with  another 
good  artist.  That  is  why  I  have  had  such 
great  artistic  pleasure  in  the  joint  recitals  I 
have  given  with  Harold  Bauer.  We  could 
play  things  that  were  really  w^orth  while  for 
each  of  us — for  the  piano  parts  of  the  modern 
sonatas  call  for  a  virtuose  technical  and  musi- 
cal equipment,  and  I  have  had  more  satisfac- 
tion from  this  ensemble  work  than  I  would 
have  had  in  playing  a  long  list  of  solo  pieces. 

"The  ideal  violin  program,  to  play  in  pub- 
lic, as  I  conceive  it,  is  one  that  consists  of  ab- 
solute music,  or  should  it  contain  virtuose 
pieces,  then  these  should  have  some  definite 
musical  quality  of  soul,  character,  elegance  or 
charm  to  recommend  them.  I  think  one  of  the 
best  programs  I  have  ever  played  in  America 
is  that  which  I  gave  with  Harold  Bauer  at 
iEolian  Hall,  New  York,  during  the  season  of 
1917-1918: 


Sonata  in   B   flat         ....         Mozart 

BATTER-THIBATTD 


Scenes  from  Childhood  .  .         Schumann 

H.  BAUZR 


Jacques  Thihaud 


273 


Poteie 


Sonata 


E.  Chausson 


J.    THIBAUD 


Cdsar  Pranck 


BAUER-THIBAITU 


Or  perhaps  this  other,    which  Bauer  and  I 
played  in  Boston,  during  Novemher,  1913: 


Kreutzer  Sonata  .  .  .  Beethoven 

BACER-THIBAtm 


Sarabanda    "| 

Giga  f       .  .  . 

Chaconne      j 

J.    THIBAUTJ 


Kreisleriana 


Sonata 


H.    BAUES 


BAUER-THIBAUD 


./.  S.  Bach 


Schumann 


Cesar  Pranck 


JEither  of  these  programs  is  artistic  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  compositions  represented. 
And  even  these  programs  are  not  too  short — 
they  take  almost  two  hours  to  play;  while  for 
my  ideal  progi-am  an  hour-and-a-half  of  beau- 
tiful music  would  suffice.  You  will  notice  that 
I  believe  in  playing  the  big,  fine  things  in 
music;  in  serving  roasts  rather  than  too  many 
Jiors  dfoeuvres  and  pastry. 

"On  a  solo  program,  of  course,  one  must 


274  Violin  Mastery 

make  some  concessions.  When  I  play  a  vio- 
lin concerto  it  seems  fair  enough  to  give  the 
public  three  or  four  nice  little  things,  but — al- 
ways pieces  which  are  truly  musical,  not  such 
as  are  only  'ear-ticklers.'  Kreisler — he  has  a 
great  talent  for  transcription — has  made 
charming  arrangements.  So  has  Tivadar  Na- 
chez,  of  older  things,  and  Arthur  Hartmann. 
These  one  can  play  as  well  as  shorter  numbers 
by  Vieuxtemps  and  Wieniawski  that  are  de- 
lightful, such  as  the  former's  Ballade  et  Po- 
lonaise, though  I  know  of  musical  purists  who 
disapprove  of  it.  I  consider  this  Polonaise  on 
a  level  with  Chopin's.  Or  take,  in  the  virtuoso 
field,  Sarasate's  Gypsy  Airs — they  are  equal 
to  any  Liszt  Rhapsody.  I  have  only  recently 
discovered  that  Ysaye — my  life-long  friend — 
has  written  some  wonderful  original  composi- 
tions: a  Poeme  eligiaque,  a  Chatit  d'hiver,  an 
Eoctase  and  a  ms.  trio  for  two  violins  and  alto 
that  is  marvelous.  These  pieces  were  an  ab- 
solute find  for  me,  with  the  exception  of  the 
lovely  Chant  d'hiver,  which  I  have  already 
played  in  Paris,  Brussels,  Amsterdam  and 
Berlin,  and  expect  to  make  a  feature  of  my 
programs  this  winter.  You  see,  Ysaye  is  so 
modest  about  his  own  compositions  that  he  does 
not   attempt   to   'push'   them,   even   with   his 


Jacques  Thibaud  275 

friends,  hence  they  are  not  nearly  as  well 
known  as  they  should  be. 

"I  never  play  operatic  transcriptions  and 
never  will.  The  music  of  the  opera,  no  matter 
how  fine,  appears  to  me  to  have  its  proper 
place  on  the  stage — it  seems  out  of  place  on 
the  violin  recital  program.  The  artist  cannot 
be  too  careful  in  the  choice  of  his  shorter  pro- 
gram pieces.  And  he  can  profit  by  the  ex- 
ample set  by  some  of  the  foremost  violinists 
of  the  day.  Ysaye,  that  great  apostle  of  the 
truly  musical,  is  a  shining  example.  It  is  sad 
to  see  certain  young  artists  of  genuine  talent 
disregard  the  remarkable  work  of  their  great 
contemporary,  and  secure  easily  gained  tri- 
umphs with  compositions  whose  musical  value 
is  nil. 

"Sometimes  the  wish  to  educate  the  public, 
to  give  it  a  high  standad  of  appreciation,  leads 
an  artist  astray.  I  heard  a  well-known  Ger- 
man violinist  play  in  Berlin  five  years  ago,  and 
what  do  you  suppose  he  played?  Beethoven's 
Ti'ios  transcribed  for  violin  and  piano!  The 
last  thing  in  the  world  to  play!  And  there 
was,  to  my  astonishment,  no  critical  disap- 
proval of  what  he  did.  I  regard  it  as  little  less 
than  a  crime. 

"But  this  whole  question  of  programs  and 


276  Violin  Mastery 

repertory  is  one  without  end.  Which  of  the 
great  concertos  do  I  prefer?  That  is  a  diffi- 
cult question  to  answer  ofF-hand.  But  I  can 
easily  tell  you  which  I  like  least.  It  is  the 
Tschaikovsky  violin  concerto — I  would  not  ex- 
change the  first  ten  measures  of  Vieuxtemps's 
Fourth  concerto  for  the  whole  of  Tschaikov- 
sky's,  that  is  from  the  musical  point  of  view. 
I  have  heard  the  Tchaikovsky  played  magnifi- 
cently by  Auer  and  by  Elman;  but  I  consider 
it  the  worst  thing  the  composer  has  written." 


XXIV 
GUSTAV  SAENGER 

THE  EDITOR  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  "VIOLIN 
MASTERY" 

The  courts  of  editorial  appeal  presided  over 
by  such  men  as  Wm.  Arms  Fisher,  Dr.  Theo- 
dore Baker,  Gustav  Saenger  and  others,  have 
a  direct  relation  to  the  establishment  and  main- 
tenance of  standards  of  musical  mastery  in  gen- 
eral and,  in  the  case  of  Gustav  Saenger,  with 
"Violin  Mastery"  in  particular.  For  this  edi- 
tor, composer  and  violinist  is  at  home  with 
every  detail  of  the  educational  and  artistic  de- 
velopment of  his  instrument,  and  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  violin  music  published  in  the 
United  States  represents  his  final  and  author- 
itative revision. 

"Has  the  work  of  the  editor  any  influence 
on  the  development  of  'Violin  Mastery'?"  was 
the  first  question  put  to  Mr.  Saenger  when  he 
found  time  to  see  the  writer  in  his  editorial 
rooms.  "In  a  larger  sense  I  think  it  has,"  was 
the  reply.     "Mastery  of  any  kind  comes  as  a 

277 


278  Violin  Mastery 

result  of  striving  for  a  definite  goal.  In  the 
case  of  the  violin  student  the  road  of  progress 
is  long,  and  if  he  is  not  to  stray  off  into  the 
numerous  by-paths  of  error,  it  must  be  liberally 
provided  with  sign-posts.  These  sign-posts,  in 
the  way  of  clear  and  exact  indications  with  re- 
gard to  bowing,  fingering,  interpretation,  it  is 
the  editor's  duty  to  erect.  The  student  himself 
must  provide  mechanical  ability  and  emotional 
instinct,  the  teacher  must  develop  and  perfect 
them,  and  the  editor  must  neglect  nothing  in 
the  way  of  explanation,  illustration  and  exam- 
ple which  will  help  both  teacher  and  pupil  to 
obtain  more  intimate  insight  into  the  musical 
and  technical  values.  Yes,  I  think  the  editor 
may  claim  to  be  a  factor  in  the  attainment  of 
'Violin  Mastery.' 

OLD  WINE  IN  NEW  BOTTLES 

"The  work  of  the  responsible  editor  of  mod- 
ern violin  music  must  have  constructive  value, 
it  must  suggest  and  stimulate.  When  Kreut- 
zer,  Gavinies  and  Rode  first  published  their 
work,  little  stress  was  laid  on  editorial  revi- 
sion. You  will  find  little  in  the  way  of  finger- 
ing indicated  in  the  old  editions  of  Kreutzer. 
It  was  not  till  long  after  Kreutzer's  death  that 


Gi:sTAV  Saenger 


Gustav  Saenger  279 

his  pupil,  Massart,  published  an  excellent  little 
book,  which  he  called  'The  Art  of  Studying  R. 
Kreutzer's  Etudes'  and  which  I  have  trans- 
lated. It  contains  no  less  than  four  hundred 
and  twelve  examples  specially  designed  to  aid 
the  student  to  master  the  Etudes  in  the  spirit 
of  their  composer.  Yet  these  studies,  as  dif- 
ficult to-day  as  they  were  when  first  written, 
are  old  wine  that  need  no  bush,  though  they 
have  gained  by  being  decanted  into  new  bottles 
of  editorial  revision. 

"They  have  such  fundamental  value,  that 
they  allow  of  infinite  variety  of  treatment  and 
editorial  presentation.  Every  student  who  has 
reached  a  certain  degree  of  technical  profici- 
ency takes  them  up.  Yet  when  studying  them 
for  the  first  time,  as  a  rule  it  is  all  he  can  do  to 
master  them  in  a  purely  superficial  way.  When 
he  has  passed  beyond  them,  he  can  return  to 
them  with  greater  technical  facility  and,  be- 
cause of  their  infinite  variety,  find  that  they 
offer  him  any  number  of  new  study  problems. 
As  with  Kreutzer — an  essential  to  'Violin  Mas- 
tery'— so  it  is  with  Rode,  Fiorillo,  and  Gavin- 
ies.  Editorial  care  has  prepared  the  studies  in 
distinct  editions,  such  as  those  of  Hermann  and 
Singer,  specifically  for  the  student,  and  that  of 
Emil  Kross,  for  the  advanced  player.    These 


280  Violin  Mastery 

editions  give  the  work  of  the  teacher  a  more 
direct  proportion  of  result.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  two  types  is  mainly  in  the  fingering. 
In  the  case  of  the  student  editions  a  simple, 
practical  fingering  of  positive  educational  value 
is  given;  and  the  student  should  be  careful  to 
use  editions  of  this  kind,  meant  for  him.  Kross 
provides  many  of  the  etudes  with  fingerings 
which  only  the  virtuoso  player  is  able  to  apply. 
Aside  from  technical  considerations  the  abso- 
lute musical  beauty  of  many  of  these  studies 
is  great,  and  they  are  well  suited  for  solo  per- 
formance. Rode's  Caprices,  for  instance,  are 
particularly  suited  for  such  a  purpose,  and 
many  of  Paganini's  famous  Caprices  have 
found  a  lasting  place  in  the  concert  repertory, 
with  piano  accompaniments  by  artists  like 
Kreisler,  Eddy  Brown,  Edward  Behm  and 
Max  Vogrich — the  last-named  composer's 
three  beautiful  'Characteristic  Pieces'  after 
Paganini  are  worth  any  violinist's  attention. 

AMERICAN    EDITORIAL   IDEALS 

"In  this  country  those  intrusted  with  edi- 
torial responsibility  as  regards  violin  music 
have  upheld  a  truly  American  standard  of  in- 
dependent judgment.    The  time  has  long  since 


Gustav  Saenger  281 

passed  when  foreign  editions  were  accepted  on 
their  face  value,  particularly  older  works.  In 
a  word,  the  conscientious  American  editor  of 
violin  music  reflects  in  his  editions  the  actual 
state  of  progress  of  the  art  of  violin  playing 
as  established  by  the  best  teachers  and  teaching 
methods,  whether  the  works  in  question  repre- 
sent a  higher  or  lower  standard  of  artistic 
merit. 

"And  this  is  no  easy  task.  One  must  re- 
member that  the  peculiar  construction  of  the 
violin  with  regard  to  its  technical  possibilities 
makes  the  presentation  of  a  violin  piece  difficult 
from  an  editorial  standpoint.  A  composition 
may  be  so  written  that  a  beginner  can  play  it 
in  the  first  position ;  and  the  same  number  may 
be  played  with  beautiful  eff*ects  in  the  higher 
positions  by  an  artist.  This  accounts  for  the 
fact  that  in  many  modern  editions  of  solo  music 
for  violin,  double  fingerings,  for  student  and 
advanced  players  respectively,  are  indicated — 
an  essentially  modern  editorial  development. 
Modern  instructive  works  by  such  masters  as 
Sevcik,  Eberhardt  and  others  have  made  tech- 
nical problems  more  clearly  and  concisely  get- 
at-able  than  did  the  older  methods.  Yet  some 
of  these  older  works  are  by  no  means  negligible, 
though  of  course,  in  all  classic  violin  literature. 


282  Violin  Mastery 

from  Tartini  on,  Kreutzer,  Spohr,  Paganini, 
Ernst,  each  individual  artist  represents  his  own 
school,  his  own  method  to  the  exclusion  of  any- 
other.  Spohr  was  one  of  the  first  to  devote 
editorial  attention  to  his  own  method,  one 
which,  despite  its  age,  is  a  valuable  work, 
though  most  students  do  not  know  how  to  use 
it.  It  is  really  a  method  for  the  advanced 
player,  since  it  presupposes  a  good  deal  of  pre- 
liminary technical  knowledge,  and  begins  at 
once  with  the  higher  positions.  It  is  rather  a 
series  of  study  pieces  for  the  special  develop- 
ment of  certain  difficult  phases,  musical  and 
technical,  of  the  violinist's  art,  than  a  method. 
I  have  translated  and  edited  the  American  edi- 
tion of  this  work,  and  the  many  explanatory 
notes  with  which  Spohr  has  provied  it — as  in 
his  own  9th,  and  the  Rode  concerto  (included 
as  representative  of  what  violin  concertos  real- 
ly should  be),  the  measures  being  provided 
with  group  numbers  for  convenience  in  refer- 
ence— are  not  obsolete.  They  are  still  valid, 
and  any  one  who  can  appreciate  the  ideals  of 
the  Gesangsscene,  its  beautiful  cantilene  and 
pure  serenity,  may  profit  by  them.  I  enjoyed 
editing  this  work  because  I  myself  had  studied 
with  Carl  Richter,  a  Spohr  pupil,  who  had  all 
his  master's  traditions. 


Gustav  Saenger  283 


THE  MASTER  VIOLINIST  AS  AN  EDITOR 

"That  the  editorial  revisions  of  a  number  of 
our  greatest  living  violinists  and  teachers  have 
passed  through  my  editorial  rooms,  on  their 
way  to  press,  is  a  fact  of  which  I  am  decidedly 
proud.  Leopold  Auer,  for  instance,  is  one 
of  the  most  careful,  exact  and  practical  of  edi- 
tors, and  the  fact  is  worth  dwelling  on  since 
sometimes  the  great  artist  or  teacher  quite  nat- 
urally forgets  that  those  for  whom  he  is  editing 
a  composition  have  neither  his  knowledge  nor 
resources.  Auer  never  loses  sight  of  the  com- 
poser's own  ideas. 

"And  when  I  mention  great  violinists  with 
whom  I  have  been  associated  as  an  editor, 
Mischa  Elman  must  not  be  forgotten.  I 
found  it  at  first  a  difficult  matter  to  induce  an 
artist  like  Elman,  for  whom  no  technical  dif- 
ficulties exist,  to  seriously  consider  the  limita- 
tions of  the  average  player  in  his  fingerings 
and  interpretative  demands.  Elman,  like  every 
great  virtuoso  of  his  caliber,  is  influenced  in  his 
revisions  by  the  manner  in  which  he  himself 
does  things.  I  remember  in  one  instance  I 
could  see  no  reason  why  he  should  mark  the 
third  finger  for  a  cantilena  passage  where  a 


284  Violin  Mastery 

certain  effect  was  desired,  and  questioned  it. 
Catching  up  his  violin  he  played  the  note  pre- 
ceding it  with  his  second  finger,  then  instead 
of  slipping  the  second  finger  down  the  string, 
he  took  the  next  note  with  the  third,  in  such  a 
way  that  a  most  exquisite  legato  effect,  like  a 
breath,  the  echo  of  a  sigh,  was  secured.  And 
the  beauty  of  tone  color  in  this  instance  not  only 
proved  his  point,  but  has  led  me  invariably  to 
examine  very  closely  a  fingering  on  the  part  of 
a  master  violinist  which  represents  a  departure 
from  the  conventional — it  is  often  the  technical 
key  to  some  new  beauty  of  interpretation  or 
expression. 

"Fritz  Kreisler's  individuality  is  also  re- 
flected in  his  markings  and  fingerings.  Of 
course  those  in  his  'educational'  editions  are 
strictly  meant  for  study  needs.  But  in  general 
they  are  difficult  and  based  on  his  own  manner 
and  style  of  playing.  As  he  himself  has  re- 
marked: 'I  could  play  the  violin  just  as  well 
with  three  as  with  four  fingers.'  Kreisler  is 
fond  of  'fingered'  octaves,  and  these,  because 
of  his  abnormal  hand,  he  plays  with  the  first 
and  third  fingers,  where  virtuose  players,  as  a 
rule,  are  only  too  happy  if  they  can  play  them 
with  the  first  and  fourth.  To  verify  this  indi- 
vidual character  of  his  revisions,  one  need  only 


Gustav  Saenger  285 

glance  at  his  edition  of  Godowsky's  '12  Impres- 
sions' for  violin — in  every  case  the  fingerings 
indicated  are  difficult  in  the  extreme;  yet  they 
supply  the  key  to  definite  effects,  and  since  this 
music  is  intended  for  the  advance  player,  are 
quite  in  order. 

"The  ms.  and  revisions  of  many  other  dis- 
tinguished artists  have  passed  through  my 
hands.  Theodore  Spiering  has  been  responsi- 
ble for  the  educational  detail  of  classic  and 
modern  works;  Arthur  Hartmann — a  com- 
poser of  marked  originality — Albert  Spalding, 
Eddy  Brown,  Francis  MacMillan,  Max  Pil- 
zer,  David  Hochstein,  Richard  Czerwonky, 
Cecil  Burleigh,  Edwin  Grasse,  Edmund  Sev- 
ern, Franz  C.  Bornschein,  Leo  Ornstein,  Rubin 
Goldmark,  Louis  Pershinger,  Louis  Victor 
Saar — whose  ms.  always  look  as  though  en- 
graved— ^have  all  given  me  opportunities  of 
seeing  the  best  the  American  violin  composer 
is  creating  at  the  present  time. 

EDITORIAL  DIFFICULTIES 

"The  revisional  work  of  the  master  violinist 
is  of  very  great  importance,  but  often  great 
artists  and  distinguished  teachers  hold  radical- 
ly different  views  with  regard  to  practically 


286  Violin  Mastery 

every  detail  of  their  art.  And  it  is  by  no  means 
easy  for  an  editor  like  myself,  who  is  finally 
responsible  for  their  editions,  to  harmonize  a 
hundred  conflicting  views  and  opinions.  The 
fiddlers  best  qualified  to  speak  with  authority 
will  often  disagree  absolutely  regarding  the  use 
of  a  string,  position,  up -bow  or  down-bow. 
And  besides  meeting  the  needs  of  student  and 
teacher,  an  editor-in-chief  must  bear  in  mind 
the  artistic  requirements  of  the  music  itself. 
In  many  cases  the  divergence  in  teaching 
standards  reflects  the  personal  preferences  for 
the  editions  used.  Less  ambitious  teachers 
choose  methods  which  make  the  study  of  the 
violin  as  easy  as  possible  for  them;  rather  than 
those  which — in  the  long  run — may  be  most  ad- 
vantageous for  the  pupil.  The  best  editions  of 
studies  are  often  cast  aside  for  trivial  reasons, 
such  as  are  embodied  in  the  poor  excuse  that 
'the  fourth  finger  is  too  frequently  indicated.' 
According  to  the  old-time  formulas,  it  was 
generally  accepted  that  ascending  passages 
should  be  played  on  the  open  strings  and  de- 
scending ones  using  the  fourth  finger.  It 
stands  to  reason  that  the  use  of  the  fourth  fin- 
ger involves  more  eff'ort,  is  a  greater  tax  of 
strength,  and  that  the  open  string  is  an  easier 
playing  proposition.     Yet  a  really  perfected 


Gustav  Saenger  287 

technic  demands  that  the  fourth  finger  be  every 
bit  as  strong  and  flexible  as  any  of  the  others. 
By  nature  it  is  shorter  and  weaker,  and  begin- 
ners usually  have  great  trouble  with  it — which 
makes  perfect  control  of  it  all  the  more  essen- 
tial! And  yet  teachers,  contrary  to  all  sound 
principle  and  merely  to  save  effort — tempora- 
rily— for  themselves  and  their  pupils,  will  often 
reject  an  edition  of  a  method  or  book  of  studies 
merely  because  in  its  editing  the  fourth  finger 
has  not  been  deprived  of  its  proper  chance  of 
development.  I  know  of  cases  where,  were  it 
not  for  the  guidance  supplied  by  editorial  revi- 
sion, the  average  teacher  would  have  had  no 
idea  of  the  purpose  of  the  studies  he  was  using. 
One  great  feature  of  good  modern  editions  of 
classical  study  works,  from  Kreutzer  to  Paga- 
nini,  is  the  double  editorial  numeration:  one 
giving  the  sequence  as  in  the  original  editions ; 
the  other  numbering  the  studies  in  order  of 
technical  difficulty,  so  that  they  may  be  prac- 
ticed progressively. 

A  UNIQUE  COLLECTION  OF  VIOLIN  STUDIES 

"What  special  editorial  work  of  mine  has 
given  me  the  greatest  personal  satisfaction  in 
the  doing?    That  is  a  hard  question  to  answer. 


288  Violin  Mastery 

Off-hand  I  might  say  that,  perhaps,  the  collec- 
tion of  progressive  orchestral  studies  for  ad- 
vanced violinists  which  I  have  compiled  and  an- 
notated for  the  benefit  of  the  symphony  orches- 
tra player  is  something  that  has  meant  much 
to  me  personally.  Years  ago,  when  I  played 
professionally — long  before  the  days  of  'minia- 
ture' orchestra  scores — it  was  almost  impossible 
for  an  ambitious  young  violinist  to  acquaint 
himself  with  the  first  and  second  violin  parts 
of  the  great  symphonic  works.  Prices  of  scores 
were  prohibitive — and  though  in  such  works  as 
the  Brahms  symphonies,  for  instance,  the  *con- 
certmaster's'  part  should  be  studied  from  score, 
in  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  partitura — 
often,  merely  to  obtain  a  first  violin  part,  I 
had  to  acquire  the  entire  set  of  strings.  So 
when  I  became  an  editor  I  determined,  in  view 
of  my  own  unhappy  experiences  and  that  of 
many  others,  to  give  the  aspiring  fiddler  who 
really  wanted  to  'get  at'  the  violin  parts  of  the 
best  symphonic  music,  from  Bach  to  Brahms 
and  Richard  Strauss,  a  chance  to  do  so.  And 
I  believe  I  solved  the  problem  in  the  five  books 
of  the  'Modern  Concert-Master,'  which  includes 
all  those  really  difficult  and  important  passages 
in  the  great  repertory  works  of  the  symphony 


Gustav  Saenger  289 

orchestra  that  offer  violinistic  problems.  My 
onlj'-  regret  is  that  the  grasping  attitude  of 
European  publishers  prevented  the  represen- 
tation of  certain  important  symphonic  num- 
bers. Yet,  as  it  stands,  I  think  I  may  say  that 
the  five  encyclopedic  books  of  the  collection 
give  the  symphony  concertmaster  every  prac- 
tical opportunity  to  gain  orchestral  routine, 
and  orchestral  :riastery. 

A  NEW  CLASSIFICATION  OF  VIOLIN  LITERATURE 

"What  I  am  inclined  to  consider,  however, 
as  even  more  important,  in  a  sense,  than  my 
editorial  labors  is  a  new  educational  classifica- 
tion of  violin  literature,  one  which  practically 
covers  the  entire  field  of  violin  music,  and 
upon  which  I  have  been  engaged  for  several 
years.  Insomuch  as  an  editor's  work  helps 
in  the  acquisition  of  'Violin  Mastery,'  I  am 
tempted  to  think  this  catalogue  will  be  a  con- 
tribution of  real  value. 

"As  far  as  I  know  there  does  not  at  present 
exist  any  guide  or  hand-book  of  violin  litera- 
ture in  which  the  fundamental  question  of 
grading  has  been  presented  aii  fond.  This  is 
not  strange,  since  the  task  of  compiling  a  really 
valid  and  logically  graded  guide-book  of  violin 


290  Violin  Mastery 

literature  is  one  that  offers  great  difficulties 
from  almost  every  point  of  view. 

"Yet  I  have  found  the  work  engrossing,  be- 
cause the  need  of  a  book  of  the  kind  which 
makes  it  easy  for  the  teacher  to  bring  his  pupils 
ahead  more  rapidly  and  intelligently  by  giving 
him  an  oversight  of  the  entire  teaching- 
material  of  the  violin  and  under  clear,  prac- 
tical heads  in  detail  order  of  progression  is 
making  itself  more  urgently  felt  every  day.  In 
classification  (there  are  seven  grades  and  a 
preparatory  grade),  I  have  not  chosen  an 
easier  and  conventional  plan  of  general  con- 
sideration of  difficulties;  but  have  followed  a 
more  systematic  scheme,  one  more  closely  re- 
lated to  the  study  of  the  instrument  itself. 
Thus,  my  'Preparatory  Grade'  contains  only 
material  which  could  be  advantageously  used 
with  children  and  beginners,  those  still  strug- 
gling with  the  simplest  elementary  problems — 
correct  drawing  of  the  bow  across  the  open 
strings,  in  a  certain  rhythmic  order,  and  the 
first  use  of  the  fingers.  And  throughout  the 
grades  are  special  sub-sections  for  special  dif- 
ficulties, special  technical  and  other  problems. 
In  short,  I  cannot  help  but  feel  that  I  have 
compiled  a  real  guide^,  one  with  a  definite  edu- 


Gustav  Sacnger  291 

cational  value,  and  not  a  catalogue,  masquer- 
ading as  a  violinistic  Baedeker. 


VIOIJN  EDITIONS      ]\rADE  IN  AMERICA 

"One  of  the  most  significant  features  of  the 
violin  guide  I  have  mentioned  is,  perhaps,  the 
fact  that  its  contents  largely  cover  the  whole 
range  of  violin  literature  in  American  editions. 
There  was  a  time,  years  ago,  when  'made  in 
Germany'  was  accepted  as  a  certificate  of  edi- 
torial excellence  and  mechanical  perfection. 
Those  days  have  long  since  passed,  and  the 
American  edition  has  come  into  its  own.  It 
has  reached  a  point  of  development  where  it 
is  of  far  more  practical  and  musically  stimulat- 
ing value  than  anj^^  European  edition.  For 
American  editions  of  violin  music  do  not  take 
so  much  for  granted !  They  reflect  in  the  high- 
est degree  the  needs  of  students  and  players 
in  smaller  places  throughout  the  country,  and 
where  teachers  are  rare  or  non-existent  they  do 
much  to  supply  instruction  by  meticulous  re- 
gard for  all  detail  of  fingering,  bowing,  phras- 
ing, expression,  by  insisting  in  explanatory  an- 
notation on  the  correct  presentation  of  author- 
itative teaching  ideas  and  principles.  In  a 
broader  sense  'Violin  INIastery'  knows  no  na- 


292  Violin  Mastery 

tionality;  but  yet  we  associate  the  famous  ar- 
tists of  the  day  with  individual  and  distinctive- 
ly national  trends  of  development  and  'schools.' 
In  this  connection  I  am  convinced  that  one 
result  of  this  great  war  of  world  liberation  we 
have  waged,  one  by-product  of  the  triumph  of 
the  democratic  truth,  will  be  a  notably  'Amer- 
ican' ideal  of  'Violin  Mastery,'  in  the  musical 
as  well  as  the  technical  sense.  And  in  the 
development  of  this  ideal  I  do  not  think  it  is 
too  much  to  claim  that  American  editions  of 
violin  music,  and  those  who  are  responsible  for 
them,  will  have  done  their  part." 


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